| Title: |
Sensory sensitivity and visual discomfort are not associated with altered gamma oscillations; a test of the excitation-inhibition hypothesis |
| Authors: |
Sumner, Petroc; Powell, Georgina; Price, Alice; Thomas, Hannah; Reed, Lucie S.; Perry, Gavin; Hedge, Craig; Singh, Krish D. |
| Publisher Information: |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press |
| Publication Year: |
2026 |
| Collection: |
Cardiff University: ORCA (Online Research @ Cardiff) |
| Description: |
Many people experience aversive hypersensitivity (discomfort/visual stress) to stimuli such as bright lights, striped patterns, strobing, motion or complex visual scenes such as supermarkets. Such sensory hypersensitivity is often associated with one or more of a range of neurological, psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions or neurodivergence. The cortical mechanisms of sensory hypersensitivity, and reasons why it occurs with such a range of conditions, remain unknown. For three decades theories have focussed on excitation/inhibition balance, where visual discomfort reflects over-excitation relative to inhibition. Visual gamma oscillations induced by viewing stripes are an accepted index of excitation/inhibition, and are successfully modelled by a cortical circuit. Visual gamma is therefore predicted to be altered in people with high visual discomfort. We tested this in two studies. The first used circular moving gratings to evoke visual gamma, alongside self-reported scales for sensory sensitivity and for discomfort induced by viewing images (N=166). We found no correlation of subjective sensitivity or discomfort with gamma frequency or amplitude (all r |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| File Description: |
application/pdf |
| Language: |
English |
| Relation: |
https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/184612/1/imag.a.1136.pdf; Sumner, Petroc https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A038616N.html orcid:0000-0002-0536-0510 orcid:0000-0002-0536-0510, Powell, Georgina https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A0378663.html orcid:0000-0001-6793-0446 orcid:0000-0001-6793-0446, Price, Alice https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A2189608L.html orcid:0000-0002-8577-7294 orcid:0000-0002-8577-7294, Thomas, Hannah https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A2734367R.html, Reed, Lucie S., Perry, Gavin https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A1476449.html orcid:0000-0003-0468-0421 orcid:0000-0003-0468-0421, Hedge, Craig and Singh, Krish D. https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/view/cardiffauthors/A0682204.html orcid:0000-0002-3094-2475 orcid:0000-0002-3094-2475 2026. Sensory sensitivity and visual discomfort are not associated with altered gamma oscillations; a test of the excitation-inhibition hypothesis. Imaging Neuroscience 4 , IMAG.a.1136. 10.1162/imag.a.1136 https://doi.org/10.1162/imag.a.1136 file https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/184612/1/imag.a.1136.pdf |
| DOI: |
10.1162/imag.a.1136 |
| Availability: |
https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/184612/; https://doi.org/10.1162/imag.a.1136; https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/184612/1/imag.a.1136.pdf |
| Rights: |
cc_by_4_0 |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.F8E63E63 |
| Database: |
BASE |