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:

    “His singing carried me back to the period of the discovery of America ... when Europeans first encountered the simple faith of the Indian. There was, indeed, a beautiful simplicity about it; nothing of the dark and savage, only the mild and infantile. The sentiments of humility and reverence chiefly were expressed.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)