Habituation is a filter that optimizes the processing of information by our brain in all sensory modalities. It results in an unconscious reduced responsiveness to continuous or repetitive stimulation. In olfaction, the main question is whether habituation works the same way for any odorant or whether we habituate differently to each odorant? In particular, whether chemical, physical or percept...

Establishing the neurocircuitry involved in inhibiting fear is important for understanding and treating anxiety disorders. To date, extinction procedures have been predominately used to examine the inhibition of learned fear, where fear is reduced to a conditioned stimulus (CS) by presenting it in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus (US). However, learned fear can also be reduced by habit...

Inter-individual behavioral variation is thought to increase fitness and aid adaptation to environmental change, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We find that variation between individuals in neuromodulatory input contributes to individuality in short-term habituation of the zebrafish (Danio Rerio) acoustic startle response (ASR). ASR habituation varies greatly between indiv...

The habituation paradigm has been applied to study the development of memory, perception, and other cognitive processes in preverbal infants, making it one most prominent experimental paradigms infant research. However, there are many features process that remain elusive, which results uncertainty about best research practices. This article first discusses current practices (e.g., use criteria)...

Although the nonassociative form of learning, habituation, is often described as the simplest form of learning, remarkably little is known about the cellular processes underlying its behavioral expression. Here, we review research on habituation in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans that addresses habituation at behavioral, neural circuit, and genetic levels. This work highlights the need to u...

UNLABELLED This study examined the role of resilience in habituation to heat and cold pain in healthy women (n = 47). Heat and cold pain thresholds were each assessed across 5 equally spaced trials. Resilience, purpose in life, optimism, social support, and neuroticism were assessed using self-report measures. The hypothesis was that the resilience and the associated resilience factors would be...

Despite representing perhaps the simplest form of memory, habituation is not yet well understood mechanistically. We used a reduced preparation to analyze the neurobiological mechanisms of persistent habituation of a simple behavior, the defensive withdrawal reflex of the marine snail Aplysia californica. This preparation permits direct infusion of drugs into the abdominal ganglion during train...

Habituation of wildlife is a double edged sword. It has been enormously useful in studying and filming free-living animals in their natural environment and providing a recreational opportunity. However, it is also a source of mortal danger to its practitioners, to habituated animals, as well as to hapless third parties. Attraction or positive habituation, in which wildlife seeks out the presenc...

We investigated the association between exhaustion and the habituation of free cortisol responses to repeated stress exposure. The study comprised 25 healthy male subjects (38-59 years) who were confronted three times with the Trier Social Stress Test. Mean cortisol responses showed the well-known general habituation effect. A two-way interaction day by exhaustion (p<0.05) indicated that mean c...