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[Neuroscience] Re: articles before brain terminology

J.A.Legris via neur-sci%40net.bio.net (by jalegris from sympatico.ca)
Sat Dec 8 22:48:19 EST 2007


On Dec 7, 12:42 pm, "Zhicheng Lin" <zhicheng... from gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I sometimes find it confusing whether to add "the" before brain terminology.
> For example, people usually use "the amygdala", " the *superior colliculus*",
> but its less clear as to say "primary visual cortex" or "the primary visual
> cortex" (I find that both are used). Any idea on this issue? Many thanks.
>
> Zhicheng Lin
>

It all depends on whether you are using the terms as "count nouns" or
"mass nouns" and it can be quite subtle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_noun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun

For example, as mass nouns your might say "Cortex [amygdala] was
observed" meaning some amount (not countable, although possibly
measurable). As count nouns you might say "The cortex [amygdala] was
observed" meaning a countable number (e.g. just one).

--
Joe




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