Imagine sitting in a quiet house and hearing a faint sound. On its own, you might barely notice it. Now imagine that same sound paired with a small movement in your peripheral vision. Neither signal is strong. But together, they demand attention. Your brain snaps into alert; the world doesn't just suddenly get loud. Instead, uncertainty skyrockets. Something is happening, and your brain wants to know what.

This is a normal feature of perception. It’s also a clue to why sensory overload isn’t always about “too much” stimulation. Often, it’s about how much interpretive work the brain is being asked to do. The brain isn’t a passive receiver of the world. It constantly combines information from sight, sound, touch, movement, and timing to figure out what’s happening and whether it matters. In neuroscience, in the process of multisensory integration, distinct sensory signals are processed and integrated into a unified perceptual experience. Most of the time, this works smoothly. We naturally pair a voice with a face. Footsteps line up with movement. The world feels coherent without any effort on our part.

But coherence isn’t guaranteed

When sensory information is inconsistent, poorly aligned, or hard to interpret, the........

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