Sensory gating
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Sensory gating is a process by which the brain adjusts its response to stimuli. It is a largely automatic process.
When one stimulus is presented, there is a response. But when it is followed by a second stimulus soon after, the response to the second stimulus is blunted. This is an adaptive mechanism to prevent overstimulation. It helps the brain focus on a stimulus among a host of other distractors.
The mechanism of sensory gating involves feed-forward and feed-back inhibition of the stimulus perceived. It involves GABA-ergic and Alpha-7 nicotinic receptor-mediated inhibition of the pyramidal neurons in the cornu ammonis (CA3) region of the hippocampus.
Sensory gating is thought to be disturbed in Schizophrenia. Because the nicotinergic receptors mediate sensory gating, smoking cigarettes, which excites nicotinergic receptors, ameliorates symptoms of auditory hallucinations in many patients with schizophrenia.[1]
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