Sensory overload commonly recruits the body’s stress-response systems:
Effects of Sensory Overload
Sensory overload occurs when incoming stimuli exceed the brain’s ability to filter and regulate them effectively. As sensory demands rise, the body recruits stress-response systems, including the fast-acting SAM pathway and the slower HPA axis, increasing arousal, vigilance, and physiological strain.
As this state persists, sensory filtering weakens further, making ordinary environments feel increasingly intense, intrusive, and difficult to manage.
Breathing regulates stress
Breathing is one of the few physiological processes that is both automatic and consciously controllable, making it a direct route into autonomic regulation.
During stress, breathing often becomes faster and shallower, reinforcing arousal. Slower, more regular breathing can support parasympathetic activity and restore physiological balance. PurrStone uses haptic pacing to guide this rhythm with minimal cognitive effort.
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Touch anchors attention
Heightened stress can impair sensory filtering, making attention more reactive to external stimuli. Tactile input provides a stable somatosensory anchor, redirecting attention toward something immediate and predictable.
By placing rhythmic cues into the hand, PurrStone supports grounding through touch, shifting focus away from diffuse sensory input and toward a controlled bodily signal, helping restore a sense of steadiness.
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Scent shapes emotional tone
Olfactory processing is closely linked to brain regions involved in emotion and associative memory, allowing scent to influence affective state rapidly.
In PurrStone, scent acts as a secondary regulatory cue, complementing the core breathing mechanism by reinforcing associations with calm, safety, and recovery. Over time, this strengthens the device’s role as a multisensory cue for regulation.
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