Neural inhibition

Neural inhibition is the inhibition of neurone activity. For example, when, the skin is touched by an object, several sensory neurons in the skin next to one another are stimulated. Neurons that are firing suppress the stimulation of neighbouring neurons. In the face of inhibition, only the neurons that are most stimulated and least inhibited will fire, so the firing pattern tends to concentrate at stimulus peaks.

History
The concept of neural inhibition (in motor systems) was well known to Descartes and his contemporaries. Sensory inhibition in vision was inferred by Ernst Mach in 1865. Inhibition in single sensory neurons was discovered and investigated starting in 1949 by Hartline, and 1956 by Hartline, Wagner, and Ratliff. Lateral inhibition sharpens the spatial profile of excitation in response to a localized stimulus.