Stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA) in the auditory system: Functional relevance and underlying mechanisms.

Rapid detection of novel stimuli that appear suddenly in the surrounding environment is crucial for an animal's survival. Stimulus-specific adaptation (SSA) may be an important mechanism underlying novelty detection. In this review, we discuss the latest advances in SSA research by addressing four main aspects: 1) the frequency dependence of SSA and the origin of SSA in the auditory cortex: 2) spatial SSA and its comparison with frequency SSA: 3) feature integration in SSA and its implications in novelty detection: 4) functional significance and the physiological mechanism of SSA. Although SSA has been extensively investigated, the cognitive insights from SSA studies are extremely limited. Future work should aim to bridge these gaps.