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Literary notes about Cerebral (AI summary)

The term "cerebral" is employed in literature to evoke both literal and metaphorical meanings, bridging the realms of physical brain function and mental or intellectual states. In some works, it vividly describes the strain and exhaustion felt by a character's mind, as seen in the depiction of cerebral exhaustion and excitement in a Gothic narrative ([1], [2]). In more scientific or psychological writings, the word is used to discuss the mechanisms of consciousness and the physiological underpinnings of thought, as illustrated by detailed accounts of intra-cerebral processes and associations ([3], [4], [5]). Meanwhile, in other contexts, "cerebral" takes on a diagnostic tone to denote physical disorders like hemorrhage or apoplexy ([6], [7]), and even appears in classical texts, where it metaphorically signifies the material that gives life to cognitive functions and evolution ([8], [9]).
  1. For two nights I had hardly had a wink of sleep, and my brain was beginning to feel that numbness which marks cerebral exhaustion.
    — from Dracula by Bram Stoker
  2. Suddenly he jumped to his feet, with his eyes blazing and all the signs of intense cerebral excitement.
    — from Dracula by Bram Stoker
  3. Goltz found that frogs deprived of their cerebral hemispheres would often exhibit [Pg 10] a like ingenuity.
    — from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James
  4. He found very regularly an immediate deflection of the galvanometer, indicating an abrupt alteration of the intra-cerebral temperature.
    — from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James
  5. This is, to my mind, the conclusive reason for saying that the order of presentation of the mind's materials is due to cerebral physiology alone.
    — from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James
  6. Pain is a [Pg 170] disease of the cerebral centres—pleasure is no disease at all.
    — from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche
  7. [Pg 195] day of May, by cerebral hemorrhage, the result of a wound inflicted by some blunt weapon in the hands of a person or persons unknown.
    — from The Four-Pools Mystery by Jean Webster
  8. This met and grew by the help of the cerebral moisture, and became the circular envelopment of the head.
    — from Timaeus by Plato
  9. Wherefore it was covered by a peel or skin which met and grew by the help of the cerebral humour.
    — from Timaeus by Plato

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