Thanks for the article link, btw. It is nice to see more and more neurological research connecting and disconnecting various disorders.
There are some interesting bits in this set of research articles related to Dabrowski's theories.
http://www.positivedisintegration.com/DRIBiblio.htmThere's some indication of generalized brain chemistry issues being related to overexcitabilities, such as variations in serotonin or dopamine uptake or production.
As an example, take someone who has sensory overexcitabilities, they look at a street scene and notice dozens of things like a candy wrapper on the ground that a neurotypical person doesn't see. Not a problem, no SPD. Now same person, same scene, and someone is talking to them. They don't follow what's said because their visual system is so loaded the speaking doesn't have much more data than the candy wrapper. APD, ASD? No.
In the above, as a child it seems problematic, but as their executive function matures and learns, they develop coping strategies like looking directly at a speaker when the environment is too rich or sitting in the front of the class or simple social things like saying "one moment, I wasn't paying attention, just found the street fascinating; what were you saying?"
