There are many theories on the purpose of neural adaptation, but evidence remains elusive. Here, we discuss the recent work by Benucci et al. (Nat Neurosci 16: 724-729, 2013), who measured for the first time the immediate effects of adaptation on the overall activity of a neuronal population. These measurements confirm two long-standing hypotheses about the purpose of adaptation, namely that adaptation counteracts biases in the statistics of the environment, and that it maintains decorrelation in neuronal stimulus selectivity.
Keywords: adaptation; decorrelation; equalization; visual cortex.
Copyright © 2014 the American Physiological Society.