Understanding Autism And Sensory Issues

Understanding autism and sensory issues

By Shane Sauer

April is Autism Awareness Month, so I thought it would be interesting to learn how the Autistic brain works and how that might help us understand ourselves.

Two of the most common indicators of Autism are a hypersensitization to sensory stimulus and anti-social behavior. Many autism researchers believe these two indicators go hand in hand because being anti-social is a great way to avoid a lot of sensory stimuli. If you haven’t checked it out, Carolyn’s blog is a great resource to help you understand why a brain would make that link.

The current way researchers explain this hypersensitization is the Excitatory-Inhibitory Imbalance Theory. Basically, autistic brains develop differently than neurotypical brains. Autistic brains have an increased awareness of sensory information and lowered capacity to manage them. This produces the imbalance.

This phenomenon is only one example of how important it is to be able to receive and interpret good sensory information. Intuitively, you know that receiving quality sensory information is important to your life. That’s why humans have created glasses and hearing aides. But do you often give much thought to your other senses?

Smell is more important than you might think. It turns out that a loss of smell over time can be a warning sign of future dementia.

And taste, well, the processed food industry is worth over 100 billion dollars a year. Yeah, taste is important to human beings.

Last of your five senses is touch. Loss of touch sensation is something that you already likely tolerate. 

While there can be many reasons for losing your sense of touch in certain areas, injury is the most common cause. After surgery especially, many people lose sensation because peripheral nerves were damaged during the surgery. Sometimes that sensation returns on its own, but oftentimes it doesn’t. And we’re beginning to learn that it is a bigger deal than you might think.

New research is showing that sensory nerves play an important role in both bone and tendon development and healing.

This means that rehabbing your sensation after an injury might not only be a good idea because it gives your brain the most information possible, but it might also help the other local structures heal more quickly and effectively.

So, if you’re recovering from an injury or just curious about your body, I recommend that you check for any sensory changes and correct them.

Not sure how? Well don’t worry, it’s actually pretty easy and I made a video to help you out!