Synonyms
Backward masking; temporal masking
Definition
Temporal inhibition refers to the suppression of response to a stimulus by presentation of a second stimulus shortly after the first stimulus. This effect can be observed across sensory modalities, particularly with respect to auditory and visual processing. In the context of visual perception, temporal inhibition is evident in paradigms involving backward visual masking. Temporal inhibition provides a constraint on the rate of information processing for sequentially presented visual stimuli.
Current Knowledge
Temporal masking is most easily observed in the auditory modality when a sudden sound interferes with the detection of other sounds that occurred immediately before the second sound. The reason for this is that the time range for this type of masking is relatively long. Similar effects are observed with visual stimuli presented in sequence, though masking typically occurs with shorter asynchronies between stimuli (<50 ms)....
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Cohen, R.A. (2018). Temporal Inhibition. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1406
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1406
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