Habituation, an underestimated mental phenomenon: Theory, implications, and applications

The response to a repetitive irrelevant stimulation tends to vanish. This phenomenon, known as habituation, is observed in virtually all animals and for all types of responses. In this target article we will review the theoretical models of habituation, its characteristics, and the related clinical and everyday life implications, with the aim of fostering the interests of researchers in this pivotal phenomenon for the human and animal mind, which is instead often described as a marginal learning process. Habituation instead reflects the operation of crucial cognitive mechanisms, and has been used as a tool to investigate different cognitive/perceptual functions. Furthermore, the notion of habituation can become useful in different clinical domains, and can create an interesting link between the research conducted among different animal species.