Sensory adaptation is when sensory neurons adjust their sensitivity to a constant stimulus over time, allowing people to adjust to their environment. This can be experienced in smell, hearing, taste, touch, and vision, but not in pain sensation. Examples include adjusting to light levels, smells, and background noise. Some individuals may have difficulty adapting to sensory changes.
Sensory adaptation is a phenomenon in which sensory neurons change their level of sensitivity to a constant stimulus over time. This adaptation allows people to adjust to their environments while balancing the need for new sensory input. Neurons involved with smell, hearing, taste, touch and vision can manifest this phenomenon. The only neurons that don’t do this are nociceptors, the neurons involved in pain sensation. This is why the smell of a severe burn seems to dissipate quickly, while the pain persists.
One of the best ways to illustrate sensory adaptation is by example. Most people are familiar with the adaptation of the eye to its environment. When someone comes out of a dark movie theater on a matinee day, the sunlight outside seems painfully bright. Within minutes, my eyes have adjusted and the light level is comfortable and normal. The light level has not changed. Receptors within the eye have adjusted their sensitivity, recognizing that they need to be less sensitive to light to avoid damaging the retina. Conversely, someone walking into a movie theater will experience the opposite, with their eyes increasing their sensitivity to light to gather all available visual information.
Similarly, many people have noticed that when they visit a smelly home, the first few minutes inside are often very uncomfortable. Over time, however, the smell seems to lessen. This is also the result of sensory adaptation. People may also notice that if they take worn clothes out of the hamper in a heavily scented environment, the smell will still be noticeable, even though the clothes didn’t seem very smelly when they were tossed into the hamper. This is a result of the fact that while wearing clothes, the receptors in the nose adjusted so that the smell was not overpowering, but when clothes were removed the stimulus was no longer constant and consequently the nose is more sensitive to it.
Sensory adaptation can also be experienced with touch, where hot water seems to temper after a few minutes, for example. Background noises are an excellent example of sensory adaptation in the case of hearing; these noises literally fade into the background because the ear is used to the constant stimulus. Taste buds may also develop a reduced sensitivity to intense stimuli, as people notice when strong flavors fade as they eat a dish.
Some people experience variations in sensory processing and perception, and sometimes this can result in a lack of sensory adaptation. For these individuals, for example, constant loud noise will always seem loud and can result in high levels of stress. Similarly, people can find it difficult to adjust to changes in light level and this sometimes causes symptoms such as headaches and eye strain.
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