Marco
Grrrrrrr!
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Which would suggest that habituation, i.e. behavioural adaption, is not the answer.
?
I'm pretty sure the authors were referring to the neurological process of inhibition whereby the nervous system screens out or 'gates' redundant or innocuous sensory data that would otherwise overwhelm the higher brain regions.
One example is sitting down on a cold hard wooden chair. At first it's uncomfortable but it's useful to know that you're safely sitting on a hard surface and there isn't a nail sticking through but that becomes redundant data and 'normally' within a few minutes you're not even aware of the sensations (in my case not only do I not habituate to the sensations but the feeling of discomfort increases until I have to get up and move).
It's likely that inhibitory circuits contribute to this habituation but in terms of the brain's electrical response to signals; filtering of 'gating' of sensory input is largely pre-conscious (around 100ms after stimulus onset) whereas 'attentional' processes don't kick in until around 300ms.
This happens well before higher order 'behavioural' factors can intervene.