sulcation

English

Noun

sulcation (countable and uncountable, plural sulcations)

1. A channel or furrow.
2. Markings resembling channels or furrows, especially in shells, fossils, etc.
   • 1865, Thomas Oldham (ed.), Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, Volume 1, page 8 (Google preview):

     The ornamentation of the shell is a character of considerable palaeontological importance. . . . The types of ornamentation are two; longitudinal striation, and transverse sulcation conformable to the shape of the aperture.

   • 1946, Charles W. Gilmore, "Reptilian Fauna of the North Horn Formation of Central Utah", Professional Paper 210-C, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, p. 45 (Google preview):

     [T]he presence of sulcation in the brow horns of all the Arrhinoceratops specimens known at the present time suggests a certain constancy in this genus.

3. (neuroscience) The development of or resulting formations of sulci in a brain cortex.
   • 2004, Devin K. Binder, Helen E. Scharfman, Recent Advances in Epilepsy Research, page 146:

     Lissencephaly refers to a diffusely smooth-surfaced cerebral hemisphere without sulcation.

   • 2011, Denise Pugash et al., “Fetal MRI of Normal Brain Development”, in Fetal MRI, →ISBN, page 155:

     Since the appearance and development of sulci in the fetal brain follows a predictable pattern, the degree of sulcation may be used as an indicator of gestational age-related cortical development, both at autopsy and in vivo with fetal MRI.

   • 2014, Dario Paladini, Paolo Volpe, Ultrasound of Congenital Fetal Anomalies: Differential Diagnosis and Prognostic Indicators, page 66:

     Gyration and sulcation occur during neuronal migration and continue until after birth.

Related terms

• sulcate

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “sulcation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• suctional, unstoical