Habituation: A model phenomenon for the study of neuronal substrates of behavior.

Abstract

The recent habituation literature is reviewed with emphasis on neurophysiological studies. The hindlimb flexion reflex of the acute spinal cat is used as a model system for analysis of the neuronal mechanisms involved in habituation and sensitization (i.e., dishabituation). Habituation of this response is demonstrated to follow the same 9 parametric relations for stimulus and training variables characteristic of behavioral response habituation in the intact organism. Habituation and sensitization appear to be central neural processes and probably do not involve presynaptic or postsynaptic inhibition. It is suggested that they may result from the interaction of neural processes resembling "polysynaptic low-frequency depression," and "facilitatory afterdischarge." "Membrane desensitization" may play a role in long-lasting habituation.

Stimulus-specific adaptation, habituation and change detection in the gaze control system

“…SSA in the auditory cortex or the thalamus has been reported to diminish at ISIs longer than 2 s (Ulanovsky et al 2003) or has only been studied at ISIs < 2 s (von der Behrens et al 2009;Antunes et al 2010). Therefore, we can conclude that the information about the standard is stored in memory for only about 2 s. This poses a major problem because many examples of behavioral habituation have been reported with ISIs of tens of seconds to minutes, even for short duration stimuli (Thompson and Spencer 1966;Weinberger et al 1975;Bala and Takahashi 2000;Zimmer 2006;Glanzman 2009;Dong and Clayton 2006;Valentinuzzi and Ferrari 1997). It is therefore necessary to identify a form of SSA that maintains a longer memory trace.…”

Altered processing of sensory stimuli in patients with migraine

“…The properties and characteristics of habituation 27 have been revised and refined, 28 but the underlying neural mecha nisms are still not completely understood. Habituation has multiple roles, ranging from pruning of irrelevant information to protection of the cerebral cortex against overstimulation.…”

“…The results have provided three main sets of observations, which were consistent across most studies. First, between attacks, a stimulus frequency dependent increase occurs in photic driving and synchronization of EEG alpha (8-13 Hz) and beta (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30) rhythms. Second, the interictal migrain ous brain is characterized by a habituation (or adapta tion) deficit of cortical evoked responses to repetitive, non noxious sensory stimuli-this deficit normalizes during an attack.…”

Long-term habituation to repeated loud noise is impaired by relatively short interstressor intervals in rats.

“…Habituation is defined as a decrease in the strength of a response after repeated presentations of the same stimulus (Groves & Thompson, 1970;Thompson & Spencer, 1966). These decrements in responding are not mediated by motor fatigue or adaptation at the level of sensory receptors, but are likely to involve central neural plastic processes (Carew & Kandel, 1973).…”