Mapping Children’s Meltdowns in the Brain

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LSmall children’s tantrums leave obvious traces, like spilled food on the floor or walls or, for example, toys thrown across the room. Now, scientists say they can watch some children’s tantrums play out in their brains. This discovery could pave the way for future treatments for children with pronounced behavioral and emotional reactions to certain stimuli.

It’s called sensory overreactivity, or SOR, the most common form of a condition called sensory processing disorder, which is not considered an official medical diagnosis. SOR, in particular, describes discomfort caused by generally innocuous stimuli, including flashing lights, vacuum cleaners, and certain food textures. This can lead to behaviors such as tantrums and withdrawal. ORS appears to be particularly prevalent in children with autism spectrum disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but it is estimated that approximately 5 to 12 percent of children in the United States experience sensory processing difficulties.

Studying SOR could help scientists better understand how two types of crucial brain networks differ in neurodiverse children, according to a paper recently published in the journal Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Exogenous outward-facing systems are linked to functions such as sensation and motor skills, while endogenous inward-facing systems are linked to functions such as impulse control and cognition. Brain activity in children with ORS could offer valuable insight into this question, as the disease involves both of these systems.

Read more: »What your brain does when you do nothing»

To do this, a team of American researchers scanned the brains of 83 neurodivergent children aged 8 to 12 years old. About half were particularly sensitive to certain lights, noises or tactile sensations, according to the results of a sensory processing assessment, while the other half were not. The team studied these children’s brains with functional MRI, which measures brain activity via changes in blood oxygenation levels, while they looked at an object on a screen. Ultimately, analyzes of the two groups showed clear distinctions.

In hypersensitive children, the activity of brain networks associated with external functions was relatively weak. But in brain networks linked to internal functions, activity was high. These results were reversed in the least sensitive children.

“We believe that when you are overstimulated by sensory stimuli, you compensate by activating your brain’s internally focused networks to gain self-control. You also deactivate your externally focused networks to minimize sensory stimuli,” study author Pratik Mukherjee, a neuroradiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement. “Children who are not emotionally overwhelmed by this message (some don’t even respond sufficiently to it) do the opposite.”

Treatment for children with sensory hyperreactivity typically involves “gradually exposing them to sensory stimuli over time so that they learn to tolerate it,” the release said. Mukherjee now believes doctors could personalize and improve these treatments “if we know a child’s brain patterns and how that corresponds to their emotions and behavior.”

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Main image: Krakenimages.com / Shutterstock

• Molly Glick

  Published on November 28, 2025

  Molly Glick is the newsletter editor of Nautilus.