Habituation

Question 1

What is habituation

Answer 1

Decrease in strength of a naturally elicited behaviour that occurs through repeated presentation of the eliciting stimulus

Question 2

Why does habituation occur simple explanation

Answer 2

So animals don’t waste energy responding to unimportant stimuli so can spend more time doing other activities for their survival

Question 3

Why does habituation occur on a neurotransmitter level

Answer 3

When repeated exposure to stimuli threshold increases for calcium ions to be released so less calcium ions released and less NT released into synaptic cleft, so fewer bind to receptors on postsynaptic membrane meaning fewer sodium ion channels on postsynaptic membrane open so decreases chance of threshold for AP being reached and fewer signals sent to the effector to carry out the response