[f. L. cerebrum brain + -ATION.] Brain-action. First used by Dr. W. B. Carpenter in the phrase unconscious cerebration, to express that action of the brain which, though unaccompanied by consciousness, produces results that might have been produced by thought.
1853. Carpenter, Phys. (ed. 4), § 819. It is difficult to find an appropriate term for this class of operations…. The designation unconscious cerebration is perhaps less objectionable than any other.
1866. Argyll, Reign Law, vi. (1871), 282. There are philosophers who appear to think … that thought is in some measure explained when it is called Cerebration.
1869. Daily News, 15 July, 4/6. An example of what physiologists call reflex cerebration.
Hence Cerebrational a.
1874. R. H. Hutton, in Contemp. Rev., XXIV. 206. The ‘cerebrational’ assumption assumes that there can be no real economy of brain-effort at all, [etc.].
