ABSTRACT
Contrary to what most people think, an autistic brain is neither more nor less sensitive to stimuli than a non-autistic brain. Strictly speaking, the sensory peculiarities in autism are not really sensory at all, because they take place in the limbic system of the emotional brain. This chapter describes how the predictive coding perspective sheds a whole new light on the sensory overload that people with autism experience so often and quite intensively. This sensory overload is the consequence of a vicious circle resulting in a hypervigilant brain that deals with prediction errors in absolute terms. Being stressed and uncertain, this hypervigilant brain can also lose touch with the sensory input from within the body, which leads to hyporeactivity to inner bodily signals. These new insights invite us to change the standard approach to support people with autism in coping with the sensory environment. Low-stimulus or a stimulus free environment is not the same as autism-friendly. The correct exposure to stimuli, increasing the confidence of the brain and perceived control is what needs to be sought.
