Abstract
Professionals working with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may find that these children are overly sensitive to sounds. These professionals are often concerned as to why children may have auditory hypersensitivities. This review article discusses the neural mechanisms identified underlying hypersensitive hearing in people. The authors focus on brain research to support the idea of the nonclassical auditory pathways being involved in connecting the auditory system with the emotional system of the brain. The authors also discuss brain mechanisms felt to be involved in auditory hypersensitivity. The authors conclude with a discussion of some treatments for hypersensitive hearing. These treatments include desensitization training and the use of listening therapies such as The Listening Program.
Highlights
Professionals working with children who overly react to sounds want to know why the children have hypersensitive hearing
When sound causes people to have negative emotional reactions, the vagus nerve may become innervated by the limbic system leading to ANS reactions of “flight and fight” which are often seen in children who overly react to sounds, such as children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
Research has demonstrated issues involving the auditory system connecting with the limbic system as well as frontal lobe involvement that can contribute to negative emotional reactions
Summary
Professionals working with children who overly react to sounds want to know why the children have hypersensitive hearing. Parents of these children want to have a better understanding of their children’s problems Often these children are described as being afraid of such sounds, losing control of their behaviors when hearing such sounds, and even fearing that the sounds may be heard when there are no such sounds in the listening environment. People try to prepare children by saying that such annoying sounds will occur; yet, even with this preparation, many of these children still lose control of their behaviors when the actual sounds are heard Many professionals relate these hypersensitivities in hearing to problems with the children’s auditory systems. It is hypothesized that the same neural mechanisms are involved in all these oversensitivities to sound; for some children the sensitivity is only to sounds of an intensity above typical tolerance by people (e.g., greater than 90 dBHL, as 90 dBHL is often identified as a level of maximum tolerance in people). Their oversensitivity may be for a variety of sounds, while for some children it is for specific sounds
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