How might the poor modulation of sensory input impact vestibular function in autism?
If certain inhibitory neurotransmitters are not doing their job of inhibiting and certain excitatory neurotransmitters are not doing their job of facilitating, the vestibular nuclei cannot do their job of integrating and passing along organized, modulated sensory information to all the body and brain systems and structures that need it. Because of too little facilitation, information from the vestibular receptors does not flow smoothly to the spinal cord and muscles, undermining balance and muscle tone and making a child gravitationally insecure, thereby insuring that the operation of all sensory processes will be out of sync with the normal state.17 Because of too little inhibition, rather than being eliminated, the disorganized sensory impulses that pass through the vestibular nuclei are fed into the reticular arousal system and the brain becomes overstimulated. How might the thalamus contribute to autism? After leaving the brain stem, sensory impulses move on to another cluster of n
