ADAPTATION AND AFTEREFFECTS IN THE VISUAL SYSTEM

It is a fundamental property of all living creatures that they adapt to their environment, thus improving their chances of survival. The adaptation of the neurons of the central nervous system is well signalled by the perceptually observed aftereffects. The aftereffects, observed for complex shapes and faces, besides the widely described adaptation to simple visual stimuli, have been more and more studied in the past decades. The paper summarizes the recent results regarding these aftereffects, with special attention to how they shed light on the object and face representation of the human brain.