Department of Psychology, NCCR sesam, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Cereb Cortex. 2010 Nov;20(11):2531-9. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhq001. Epub 2010 Jan 29.
Habituation is a fundamental form of learning manifested by a decrement of neuronal responses to repeated sensory stimulation. In addition, habituation is also known to occur on the behavioral level, manifested by reduced emotional reactions to repeatedly presented affective stimuli. It is, however, not clear which brain areas show a decline in activity during repeated sensory stimulation on the same time scale as reduced valence and arousal experience and whether these areas can be delineated from other brain areas with habituation effects on faster or slower time scales. These questions were addressed using functional magnetic resonance imaging acquired during repeated stimulation with piano melodies. The magnitude of functional responses in the laterobasal amygdala and in related cortical areas and that of valence and arousal ratings, given after each music presentation, declined in parallel over the experiment. In contrast to this long-term habituation (43 min), short-term decreases occurring within seconds were found in the primary auditory cortex. Sustained responses that remained throughout the whole investigated time period were detected in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex extending to the dorsal part of the anterior insular cortex. These findings identify an amygdalocortical network that forms the potential basis of affective habituation in humans.
习惯化是一种基本的学习形式，表现为神经元对重复感觉刺激的反应逐渐减弱。此外，习惯化也被认为会在行为层面发生，表现为对重复呈现的情感刺激的情绪反应减少。然而，目前尚不清楚在相同的时间尺度上，哪些大脑区域在重复的感觉刺激下表现出活动的下降，与效价和唤醒体验的降低相匹配，以及这些区域是否可以与具有更快或更慢时间尺度的习惯化效应的其他大脑区域区分开来。这些问题使用在钢琴旋律重复刺激过程中获取的功能磁共振成像来解决。在每次音乐呈现后给出的杏仁核基底外侧和相关皮质区域的功能反应幅度以及效价和唤醒评分的幅度在实验过程中平行下降。与这种长期习惯化（43 分钟）相反，在几秒钟内发现初级听觉皮层中存在短期下降。在腹外侧前额叶皮层中检测到持续的反应，延伸到前岛叶皮层的背侧部分。这些发现确定了一个杏仁核-皮质网络，它构成了人类情感习惯化的潜在基础。
