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:

    “After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)