Taming Childhood Tantrums With Brain Scans and Precise Care

Toddlers who act out big emotional reactions like tantrums and frenzy behaviors are highly sensitive to sound, lights, and touch. The oversensitive process is linked with peculiar brain activity and the chaos is called Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). The neurodivergent study was made by researchers at UC San Francisco, and published in Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.(1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Some children’s tantrums can be seen in the brain, new study finds

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The finding is essential because it will help physicians understand and measure specific brain signature in kids with strong behavioral episodes. The sensory discoveries provide new track to treat each child efficiently with precise therapies.

Imaging Sensory Processing in Children

Sensory processing disorder affects how the brain understands and responds to sensory information but still lacks an official medical diagnosis.

Researchers at UCSF studied 83 neurodivergent children between the ages of 8 and 12 years old. About half were highly sensitive to certain noises, lights, or tactile sensations, while the other half weren’t.

When scientists imaged their brains using functional MRI, which measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood oxygenation levels, they found significant differences between the two groups.

Distinct Neural Activity in Over- vs. Less-Sensitive Children

For over-responsive children, the activity in brain networks that govern so-called “outward” functions, such as motor skills and sensation, was low, while the activity in brain networks that regulate “inward” functions, like cognition and impulse control, was high.

This was exactly opposite of the pattern that scientists observed in the less sensitive children.

“We think that when you are overstimulated by sensory input, you compensate by dialing up your brain’s inward-focused networks to gain self-control.”

“You also dial down your outward-focused networks to minimize sensory input,” said Pratik Mukherjee, MD, PhD, a UCSF neuroradiology professor and co-senior author of the study with Elysa Marco, MD, a pediatric neurologist.

Explaining Emotional Irregularity in School-Age Children

“The kids who aren’t emotionally overwhelmed by the input — some are even under-responsive to it — do the opposite.”

Past research indicates 5% to 12% of children in the U.S. have sensory processing challenges, and this may explain much of the emotional volatility in the school-age population.

Treatment for over-responsive children often focuses on gradually exposing them to sensory input over time so they learn to tolerate it.

Mukherjee said the team’s findings could help improve these therapies: “If we know an individual child’s brain patterns and how that maps to emotion and behavior, we may be able to use this to personalize treatments.”

Reference:

1. Some children’s tantrums can be seen in the brain, new study finds - (https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2025/11/431046/some-childrens-tantrums-can-be-seen-brain-new-study-finds#:~:text=The%20finding%20could%20one%20day,lacks%20an%20official%20medical%20diagnosis.)

Source-Eurekalert