Imagine that you just walked into your favorite Italian restaurant.
The delicious smell of garlic and tomatoes is almost overwhelming when you first walk through the door.
This is an example of sensory adaptation.
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Read on to learn more about sensory adaptation and how it works.
We also explore examples of sensory adaptation and how it differs from habituation.
What Is Sensory Adaptation?
All five senses can experience sensory adaptation.
It is important to note that sensory adaptation does not occur with pain perception.
Perception is how we recognize and interpret what is coming in through our senses.
Research suggests that sensory adaptation occurs within the multiple stages ofperceptual processing.
This adaptive change can occur slowly or quickly.
Fast adaptation happens very quickly, in the span of milliseconds.
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Even hand-eye coordination adjusts when necessary.
Sensory adaptation is an automatic, involuntary process that involves becoming less sensitive to sensory stimulationat the cellular level.
As our senses adapt to familiar stimuli, our perception and experience will change, or habituate.
(But it’s different from anosmia, or the inability to smell.)
Pellegrino R, Sinding C, de Wijk RA, Hummel T.Habituation and adaptation to odors in humans.Physiol Behav.
