Brain representation of habituation to repeated complex visual stimulation studied with PET

To investigate CNS habituation (i.e. response decrement due to stimulus repetition) the present study used positron emission tomography (PET) to measure regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in eight healthy women during two repetitions of complex visual stimuli. Repeated visual stimulation resulted in neural habituation bilaterally in the secondary visual cortex and in the right medial temporal cortex including the amygdala and the hippocampus. Regional CBF in the left thalamus was elevated as a function of repeated stimuli presentations. Thus, repeated presentation of complex visual stimuli result in rCBF habituation in later stages of the visual processing chain. The elevated neural activity in the thalamus might be associated with interruption of further neural transmission related to suppression of non-meaningful behavior.