Study IDs Neurobiological Roots of Sensory Over-Responsivity

THURSDAY, Aug. 13, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Sensory over-responsivity (SOR) is associated with autistic traits and anxiety in both children with and without autism, according to a study published online Aug. 13 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Hexin Luo, from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues sought to identify the clinical significance of SOR in children and to establish whether SOR is associated with replicable patterns of functional connectivity. The analysis included data from 15,728 children (ages 6 to 17.9 years) across five cohorts (three community samples and two autism-enriched samples).

The researchers found that SOR was associated with a remarkably consistent profile across samples, with greater levels of both autistic traits and anxiety symptoms seen with SOR. In community samples, SOR was associated with lower levels of conduct disorder symptoms. However, overall, SOR was not reliably associated with symptoms of any other analyzed psychiatric conditions. There was an association between mild SOR and brainwide functional connectivity patterns and, specifically, reduced functional connectivity between the cingulo-parietal network and bilateral caudate nucleus. Across large independent subsamples, these patterns showed robust replication, which was not achieved in smaller samples.

“These sensory challenges are not kids just “being difficult,” but are behaviors rooted in specific neurological differences,” senior author Rebecca Schwarzlose, Ph.D., also from the Washington University School of Medicine, said in a statement. “We also show kids without autism can struggle with the sensory environment. Because services like occupational therapy can help children cope with these challenges, it is important to properly identify sensory over-responsivity and get kids the right support.”

Abstract/Full Text