Jargon Buster

The nerve which connects the inner ear to the brain. It is involved in hearing, balance and body position.

An area at the back of the brain which helps us make sense of visual information.

Relating to the visual perception of the relationships between objects in a space. Visuospatial skills allow us to move around an environment e.g. move around a room without bumping into things or retrace our way across a city because we have a visual map in our memory from the last time. Visuospatial perception is also involved in our ability to accurately reach for objects in our visual field and our ability to shift our gaze to different points in space.

A treatment strategy where no immediate treatment is given, but you are closely monitored with regular appointments and scans until symptoms develop or worsen, or your scan changes. This treatment option is often used for low grade, slow growing tumours, where treatment has the risk of causing more harm than doing nothing.

A medicine or treatment which has mild, or no, side-effects

A type of cell present in the blood. As part of the immune system, they help the body fight infection and disease

Particular types of cells that are found in the deeper parts of the brain and cerebellum, and also parts of the spinal cord. It acts to help transmit signals from one part of the brain to another.