Jennifer Aniston neuron

English

Etymology

Named after Jennifer Aniston, from a 2005 study which identified a neuron firing to photographs showing the actress.[1]

Noun

Jennifer Aniston neuron (plural Jennifer Aniston neurons)

  1. (informal) Synonym of grandmother cell
    • 2012, Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, Borges and Memory: Encounters with the Human Brain, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 173:
      In fact, the Jennifer Aniston neuron also responded to Lisa Kudrow, another star of Friends (the television series that made them both famous), in an experiment carried out the next day.
    • 2014, John Medina, Brain Rules, updated and expanded edition, Pear Press, →ISBN, page 94:
      A Jennifer Aniston neuron? How could this be? Surely nothing in our evolutionary history suggests that Jennifer Aniston is a permanent denizen of our brain wiring.

References
  1. R. Quian Quiroga, L. Reddy, G. Kreiman, C. Koch, I. Fried (2005-06) “Invariant visual representation by single neurons in the human brain”, in Nature‎, volume 435, number 7045, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 1102–1107
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