Acclimatisation is the process by which the nervous system fails to respond to a stimulus, as a result of the repeated stimulation of a transmission across a synapse. Acclimatisation is believed to occur when the
synaptic knob
Chemical synapses are biological junctions through which neurons' signals can be sent to each other and to non-neuronal cells such as those in neuromuscular junction, muscles or glands. Chemical synapses allow neurons to form biological neural ...
of the presynaptic
neuron
A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...
runs out of
vesicles
Vesicle may refer to:
; In cellular biology or chemistry
* Vesicle (biology and chemistry), a supramolecular assembly of lipid molecules, like a cell membrane
* Synaptic vesicle
In a neuron, synaptic vesicles (or neurotransmitter vesicles) s ...
containing
neurotransmitters
A neurotransmitter is a signaling molecule secreted by a neuron to affect another cell across a synapse. The cell receiving the signal, or target cell, may be another neuron, but could also be a gland or muscle cell.
Neurotransmitters are rele ...
due to overuse over a short period of time.
A synapse that has undergone acclimatisation is said to be
fatigued.
[''Hocking, S,'' et al, (2008), ''OCR Biology A2'', Harlow: Heinemann, pg. 20]
Acclimatisation is said to be responsible for 'getting used to' background noises and smells.
See also
*
Adaptive system
An adaptive system is a set of interacting or interdependent entities, real or abstract, forming an integrated whole that together are able to respond to environmental changes or changes in the interacting parts, in a way analogous to either cont ...
*
Neural adaptation
Neural adaptation or sensory adaptation is a gradual decrease over time in the responsiveness of the sensory system to a constant stimulus. It is usually experienced as a change in the stimulus. For example, if a hand is rested on a table, the t ...
References
Cellular neuroscience
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