Habituation History

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 92 (2009) 127–134

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Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

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Review

Habituation: A history

This chapter is dedicated to W. Alden Spencer (1931–1977)

1. Introduction The notion of habituation is as old as humankind. As Ctesippus says in Plato’s Lysis: ‘‘Indeed, Socrates, he has literally deafened us and stopped our ears with the praises of Lysis; and if he is a little intoxicated, there is every likelihood that we may have our sleep murdered with a cry of Lysis.” To take an even older example: ‘‘A fox who had never yet seen a lion, when he fell in with him for the first time in the forest was so frightened that he was near dying with fear. On his meeting with him for the second time, he was still much alarmed, but not to the same extent as at first. On seeing him the third time, he so increased in boldness that

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he went up to him and commenced a familiar conversation with him.” (sop’s Fables) Experimental studies, or at least observations of phenomena of habituation for a variety of responses in a wide range of organisms from amoebas to humans literally exploded at the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. See Harris (1943) and Jennings (1906). I was unable to determine who first used the term habituation in this context, but it was in widespread use early in the twentieth century. In his classic text on learning, Humphrey (1933) notes that a range of terms, ‘‘acclimatization”, ‘‘accommodation”, ‘‘negative adaptation”, ‘‘fatigue” have been used to describe the phenomenon. Harris (1943) in his classic review adds the terms ‘‘extinction” and ‘‘stimulatory inactivation” to the list. As he notes,

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Richard F. Thompson / Neurobiology of Learning and Memory 92 (2009) 127–134

‘‘While none of the terms...