What does SSH "maxauthtries" do?

I'm wondering what will happen if I uncomment "maxauthtries" in the /etc/sshd_config file. I have seen some recommendations to do this, but also found a document which advised that OS X didn't support this particular option.

Once the max attempts are reached, does OS X disable SSH for that account until someone resets it locally? Or is it just a period of time you have to wait until you try again?

Thanks for the advice!