DiscoverFrom the Spectrum: Finding Superpowers with AutismAutism & Auditory: Low Inhibition + High Excitation = Sensory Overload
Autism & Auditory: Low Inhibition + High Excitation = Sensory Overload

Autism & Auditory: Low Inhibition + High Excitation = Sensory Overload

Update: 2025-12-01
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Starting with von Békésy’s traveling wave and the cochlea’s +80 mV biological battery, we move millisecond-by-millisecond through the auditory brainstem response (ABR Waves I–V), auditory nerve, cochlear nucleus, superior olivary complex, inferior colliculus, thalamic reticular nucleus, and finally primary auditory cortex (A1). The Endocochlear Potential (EP) is the highest DC voltage in the human body. As signals travel, excitation-inhibition attempts to balance that. When intact, brains can filter noise and locate meaningful sound. In Autism, reduced GABAergic sculpting (parvalbumin, somatostatin, and VIP interneuron dysfunction) plus lower myelination and a delayed Wave V — already detectable on the newborn hearing screen — turn ordinary environments into an unfiltered flood. The result is listening dissonance: a moment-to-moment perceptual struggle that collapses 40-Hz gamma, recruits massive frontal effort and emotional regions of the brain, frequently ends in sensory overload, shutdown, or literal pain. We close with the exact equation the pathway reveals: Low Inhibition + High Excitation = Sensory Overload.

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0:00 Chroma Light Devices and Daylight Computer Company

01:56 Audition & Autism; von Békésy Traveling Wave & Tonotopy; Hair Cells & Cochlear Amplifier

04:20 Endocochlear Potential (+80 mV Battery); Bioelectric Currents

06:30 Stria Vascularis, Melanin, & Water Role

08:15 Auditory Nerve – ABR Wave I (1.6 ms)

08:36 ABR Wave II (2.7 ms)09:00 Cochlear Nucleus & Early E:I

12:10 ABR Wave III – Superior Olivary Complex (3.8 ms)

12:13 Binaural Processing & Calyx of Held

15:00 ABR Wave V – Inferior Colliculus (5.6 ms)

15:42 Inferior Colliculus Gamma & Cell Types

18:00 Thalamus MGN & TRN Noise-Canceling

21:30 2021 Newborn ABR Study – Prolonged Wave V Biomarker

24:30 Listening Dissonance Explained

28:30 Auditory Cortex Gamma Collapse in Autism

32:30 Primary Auditory Cortex A1 Mini-Columns

36:00 Parvalbumin, Somatostatin & VIP Interneurons

39:00 Formula: Low GABA + High Excitation = Overload & Pain

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email: info.fromthespectrum@gmail.com

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Autism & Auditory: Low Inhibition + High Excitation = Sensory Overload

Autism & Auditory: Low Inhibition + High Excitation = Sensory Overload