Hypersensitivity vs hyposensitivity: understanding your sensory profile

Short answer

Hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity are descriptive terms for input that feels unusually intense or needs to be stronger before it is noticed. Dunn's 1997 conceptual model combines a proposed threshold dimension with passive or active response strategies, and Brown and Dunn's 2002 proprietary questionnaire operationalised four broad patterns. These constructs do not directly measure a person's nervous-system threshold, diagnose a condition, or show that every adult has one stable profile. Responses may vary by sense, setting, health, and time.

What the two thresholds actually mean

In Dunn's model, 'neurological threshold' is a theoretical dimension describing how readily a person responds to sensory input. A questionnaire score is not a neurological measurement, and it cannot show how a person's brain is wired.

Engel-Yeger and Dunn's 2011 cross-sectional study found associations between sensory-processing questionnaire scores and anxiety traits. It did not show that lower thresholds cause stress or that an environment delivers objectively more input to one person. Use the framework to organise observations, not to infer a biological mechanism.

Dunn's four quadrants in plain English

Dunn's model combines a proposed threshold dimension (low or high) with response strategy (passive or active) to produce four constructs. Low registration combines a proposed high threshold with a passive strategy; sensation seeking combines a proposed high threshold with an active strategy; sensory sensitivity combines a proposed low threshold with a passive strategy; and sensation avoiding combines a proposed low threshold with an active strategy.

The proprietary Adult/Adolescent Sensory Profile uses questionnaire responses to estimate these constructs. It does not directly measure neural activity or prove why someone chooses strong flavours, avoids a noisy room, misses a cue, or changes an environment. Those behaviours can have many explanations, and a person may report different patterns by sense and setting.

How reported profiles can be mixed

People can report different responses across senses and settings. For example, one person may dislike background music yet prefer strong flavours or vigorous movement. Questionnaire profiles can describe that variation, but the cited sources do not establish the most common pattern or show that illness, hormones, hunger, or stress changes a neurological threshold in a predictable way.

A practical approach is to record the context and test a safe, reversible change. New, painful, one-sided, or rapidly changing sensory symptoms need medical assessment rather than interpretation through a quadrant score.

Noticing your own profile

Questions can help organise observations without assigning a threshold. Which light, sound, texture, smell, temperature, movement, or internal sensation feels comfortable or difficult? In which settings? Does the response change with sleep, pain, hunger, stress, medicine, or illness? Which inputs do you deliberately approach or reduce, and what outcome follows?

NeuroType's sensory preferences reflection tool groups current self-reports by practical area. Its private summary is descriptive: it does not measure a threshold, establish hypersensitivity or hyposensitivity, or identify a medical, developmental, or psychological cause.

Related NeuroType pages

For the broader plain English overview of adult sensory processing, read sensory processing in adults: a plain English self reflection guide. For the related distinction between active sensory seeking and active sensory avoiding behaviours, read sensory seeking vs sensory avoiding behaviours in adults. For more on what an online sensory tool can and cannot tell you, read sensory processing test for adults.

NeuroType's sensory preferences reflection tool maps onto Dunn's quadrants and can help you notice your own profile across the main sensory channels. Individual answers stay in the browser during the free flow.

Source and review status

This article is original NeuroType editorial content. It references Dunn's 1997 conceptual model, Brown and Dunn's 2002 proprietary Adult/Adolescent Sensory Profile, and Engel-Yeger and Dunn's 2011 cross-sectional study of sensory patterns and anxiety traits. Associations are not presented as causal. No licensed instrument items are reproduced. This page is reviewed by the NeuroType editorial team and is not clinical advice. Corrections can be sent to hello@neurotype.app.