Sensory filtering and PTSD

People with sensory filtering disruptions often report being bothered by sounds and light and feeling easily distracted by sensory events - such as machine noises - in the environment that go unnoticed by others. Sensory filtering disruptions are associated with a range of mental-health problems including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A U.S. study of 329 people compared those with PTSD, those who had been exposed to trauma but not developed PTSD and those who had been exposed to no trauma at all. The researchers found that people with PTSD reported greater filtering disruption than those in the trauma-only and no-trauma groups. People endorsing re-experiencing and numbing symptoms and women who were hyper-vigilant reported disrupted sensory filtering.

Stewart, Lorraine P. and White, Patricia M. - Sensory filtering phenomenology in PTSD Depression and Anxiety 25(1), 38-45