How does our brain form and store memories? One way to approach this mystery is to study a very basic form of learning—habituation—in a relatively simple nervous system.
Habituation describes the progressive decrease of the amplitude or frequency of a motor response to repeated sensory stimulation that is not caused by sensory receptor adaptation or motor fatigue. A multitude of different organisms, behaviors, and experimental approaches have been used to study habituation, but still surprisingly little is known about the underlying mechanisms. A theoretical framework of the concept of habituation has been laid by Thompson and Spencer , and by the dual process theory of Groves and Thompson , which describes habituation and sensitization as two independent processes that interact to yield the final behavioral outcome.
In a symposium in , the original concept was revisited and the definitions of habituation and dishabituation were slightly revised for clarity; however, remarkably there were only few changes to the defining characteristics Rankin et al. It is becoming evident that behavioral habituation is caused by different mechanisms depending on time frame of stimulation, type of sensory pathway studied, and hierarchical level of signal processing. On the other hand, habituation mechanisms seem to be highly conserved, underlining the importance of habituation for the survival of a species see Schmid et al.
The scope of this Frontiers Research Topic is to give an overview over the concept of habituation, the different animal and behavioral models used for studying habituation mechanisms, as well as the different synaptic and molecular processes suggested to play a role in behavioral habituation. Fischer et al. In accordance with the notion of different mechanisms mediating habituation in different time frames and different pathways, they report an intrinsic mechanism that is specific for short-term habituation at short training intervals of 1s.
Typlt et al. Pilz et al. They report that long-term habituation is stimulus-modality specific, but not context specific, confirming it as a non-associative form of learning. Perez-Gonzalez and Malmierca review different forms of spike adaptation in auditory neurons of different levels of auditory processing hierarchy. These mechanisms lead to sensory filtering and habituation of perception. Manella et al. Besides the importance of understanding the underlying mechanisms of habituation as a basic form of learning or sensory filtering, some articles go beyond understanding mechanisms of habituation and explore how its disruption impacts other cognitive domains and higher cognitive function.
The Mini Review of De Luca sheds light on the mechanism of the habituation phenomenon of mesolimbic and mesocortical dopamine transmission in response to taste stimuli, and its putative role as a marker of cortical dysfunction in specific conditions such as addiction. Related to this topic, Lloyd et al. They indicate that behavioral disorders such as obesity or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD may be caused by abnormal habituation to the reinforcer due to genetic or environmental factors.
Interestingly, studying the electrodermal orienting reflex in humans, Steiner and Barry argue against the dual-process theory's explanation that dishabituation is caused by sensitization, and instead suggest that dishabituation is a disruption of the habituation process, with its magnitude determined by the corresponding arousal level.
At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data.
We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. I Accept Show Purposes. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. Habituation in Relationships. Habituation in Exposure Therapy Exposure therapy uses habituation to help people overcome their fears. For example: A person who is terrified of the dark might begin by simply imagining being in a dark room. Once they have become habituated to this experience, they will expose themselves to increasingly closer approximations to the real source of their anxiety until they finally confront the fear itself.
Eventually, the individual can be habituated to the stimulus so that they no longer experience the fear response. When It Can Hurt a Relationship Habituation in relationships can become problematic, however, when it leads to taking the other person for granted.
Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Sign Up. What are your concerns? Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Domjan M. The Principles of Learning and Behavior. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning; Encyclopedia of Educational Psychology. Wadsworth Publishing; Related Articles.
How Is Extinction Defined in Psychology? How Priming Affects the Psychology of Memory. Hearing vs. Listening: What's the Difference? What Are the Five Love Languages? What Attention Means in Psychology. Potentiation, habituation, and sensitization are three ways in which stimuli in the environment produce changes in the nervous system. Learning occurs when stimuli in the environment produce changes in the nervous system. Three ways in which this occurs include long-term potentiation, habituation, and sensitization.
One way that the nervous system changes is through potentiation, or the strengthening of the nerve synapses the gaps between neurons. Long-term potentiation LTP is the persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity: it occurs when a neuron shows an increased excitability over time due to a repeated pattern, behavior, or response. The structure of a neuron : Communication between neurons occurs when the neurotransmitter is released from the axon on one neuron, travels across the synapse, and is taken in by the dendrite on an adjacent neuron.
Because memories are thought to be encoded by modification of synaptic strength, LTP is widely considered one of the major cellular mechanisms that underlies learning and memory. The role of LTP in learning is still being researched, but studies on the hippocampus have found LTP to occur during associative learning such as classical conditioning. Recall that sensory adaptation involves the gradual decrease in neurological sensory response caused by the repeated application of a particular stimulus over time.
In other words, habituation is when we learn not to respond to a stimulus that is presented repeatedly without change. As the stimulus occurs over and over and as long as it is not associated with any reward or punishment , we learn not to focus our attention on it. It is a form of non-associative learning that does not require conscious motivation or awareness.
0コメント