Habituation-like decrease in the responses of neurons in inferior temporal cortex of the macaque

In both anesthetized and behaving macaques, we examined the responses of neurons in the inferior temporal cortex (IT) to repeated presentation of a visual stimulus. In anesthetized animals, the responsiveness of IT neurons decreased with repeated stimulus presentation at interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 2-12 s but not at 20 s. Responsiveness recovered after a 5-min period of no stimulus presentation. The response decrement was similar in anesthetized and awake animals at a 2-s ISI, but at a 6-s ISI, response decrement in the awake animal was much less.