Alexithymia may explain the genetic relationship between autism and sensory sensitivity
Genes link sensory issues to alexithymia, not directly to autism—so teach feeling words while you tame the lights and sounds.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Yorke et al. (2025) looked at teen twins. Some had autism. Some did not.
They checked DNA, sensory scores, and alexithymia. Alexithymia means trouble naming feelings.
What they found
Genes tied to autism also tied to sensory issues. That link vanished when alexithymia was counted.
Alexithymia kept its own genetic tie to sensory problems. The sensory pain may ride on emotional blind spots, not autism itself.
How this fits with other research
Machado et al. (2024) saw the same link in parents. Moms and dads of kids with autism or SPD both had high alexithymia and sensory quirks. The new twin data say the tie is genetic, not just learned.
Root et al. (2017) showed sensory hypersensitivity links anxiety to rigid routines in autistic kids. Yorke’s team add alexithymia as another emotional bridge. Sensory interventions may need both calm-space tools and feeling-ID skills.
Brosnan et al. (2025) found intolerance of uncertainty explains slow decision making in autism. Together, these papers paint a picture: autism traits spill into daily life through emotional mediators—alexithymia or uncertainty—more than through the label itself.
Why it matters
Before you write a sensory diet, screen for alexithymia. If the client can’t say “I’m tense,” the buzz of fluorescent lights may feel like danger. Add emotion cards, interoception scripts, or feeling-to-action choices. Targeting the emotional layer may cut sensory meltdowns faster than noise-canceling headphones alone.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Sensory symptoms are highly prevalent amongst autistic individuals and are now considered in the diagnostic criteria. Whilst evidence suggests a genetic relationship between autism and sensory symptoms, sensory symptoms are neither universal within autism nor unique to autism. One explanation for the heterogeneity within autism and commonality across conditions with respect to sensory symptoms, is that it is alexithymia (a condition associated with difficulties identifying and describing one’s own emotions) that has a genetic relationship with sensory symptoms, and that alexithymia commonly co-occurs with autism and with several other conditions. Using parent-reports of symptoms in a sample of adolescent twins, we sought to examine the genetic association between autism, alexithymia and sensory symptoms. Results showed that the genetic correlation between autism and sensory symptoms was not significant after controlling for alexithymia. In contrast, after controlling for variance in alexithymia explained by autism, the genetic correlation between alexithymia and sensory symptoms was significant (and the proportion of variance explained by genetic factors remained consistent after controlling for autism). These results suggest that 1) alexithymia and sensory symptoms share aetiology that is not accounted for by their association with autism and 2) that the genetic association between sensory symptoms and autism may be, in part or wholly, a product of alexithymia. Future research should seek to examine the contribution of alexithymia to sensory symptoms across other conditions.
Translational Psychiatry, 2025 · doi:10.1038/s41398-025-03254-1