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:

    “Of all the barbarous middle ages, that
    Which is most barbarous is the middle age
    Of man! it is—I really scarce know what;
    But when we hover between fool and sage,
    And don’t know justly what we would be at—
    A period something like a printed page,
    Black letter upon foolscap, while our hair
    Grows grizzled, and we are not what we were.”
    —George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)