Definition of "cephalization" []

• An evolutionary trend in the animal kingdom toward centralization of neural and sensory organs in the head or anterior region of the body. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The differentiation of a head region marked by sense organs and a mouth is referred to as cephalization ( "head" G), The process of cephalization has its internal effects on the nervous system."
• "It had the double cephalization ratio of brain size to body size of the anthropoid apes in general and half that of man . . ."
• "This lack of advanced cephalization is reflected internally; the nerve cord runs forward into the head region with scarcely any sign of specialization."