stereotaxic, a. Biol. and Med.
(stɛriːəʊ-, stɪəriːəʊˈtæksɪk)
[f. stereo- + taxis + -ic.]
Involving or designed for the accurate three-dimensional positioning and movement of objects inside the brain.
| 1908 Horsley & Clarke in Brain XXXI. 63 The foundation of the stereotaxic instrument is a rigid quadrilateral rectangular frame..the ends of which..can be approximated by joints which slide on the lateral bars. 1919 S. Paget Sir V. Horsley 189 R. H. Clarke..also devised a stereotaxic apparatus, probably the most complex of all the mathematical instruments of physiology. 1935 Arch. Neurol. & Psychiatry XXXIV. 162 With the aid of the Horsley-Clarke stereotaxic instrument, lesions were placed in..the hypothalamus in forty adult cats. 1969 New Scientist 30 Jan. 230/1 The stereotaxic..procedure reaches deep areas of the brain. 1971 Nature 8 Jan. 131/1 The brain was exposed from above and a fine knife lowered between the two hemispheres until the blade was at the correct stereotaxic setting for the supraoptic commissure. 1971 ‘D. Halliday’ Dolly & Doctor Bird xvi. 247 Nothing short of stereotaxic surgery will ever obliterate the events of..that night. |
Hence stereoˈtaxically adv.
| 1964 Jrnl. Neurophysiol. XXVII. 754 Electrolytic lesions produced by passing 3-mA anodal d.c. for 10 sec. through a stereotaxically guided stainless steel electrode with 1 mm. bared at the tip. 1979 Nature 4 Jan. 52/1 I.c. cannulae (o.d. 0·6 mm) were implanted stereotaxically in male Wistar rats. |