Refractory Period

The term "refractory period" may refer to:

  • Refractory period (physiology), the amount of time it takes for an excitable membrane to be ready for a second stimulus once it returns to its resting state following excitation in the areas of biology, physiology, and cardiology.
  • Refractory period (sexology), the recovery phase after orgasm during which it is physiologically impossible for an individual to have additional orgasms.
  • Psychological refractory period, the delay in response to the second of two closely spaced psychological stimuli.
  • The period of weeks or even months following a series of seizures during which seizures cannot be induced when referring to epilepsy, known as the Postictal state.

Famous quotes containing the word period:

    Finally she grew quiet, and after that, coherent thought. With this, stalked through her a cold, bloody rage. Hours of this, a period of introspection, a space of retrospection, then a mixture of both. Out of this an awful calm.
    Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)