Sensory Errors & Sensory Mismatch
Why the brain sometimes feels “off”—and how to bring it back online
By Dr. David Traster, DC, MS, DACNB
Co-owner, The Neurologic Wellness Institute
Boca Raton • Chicago • Waukesha • Wood Dale
When patients tell me, “I feel wrong in my own body,” they’re describing the experience of a sensory error. When they add, “and the world doesn’t match what I feel,” that’s a sensory mismatch. These are not character flaws or vague complaints; they’re measurable phenomena of a predictive brain trying to keep a complex body upright in a busy world.
Below, we’ll unpack what those terms mean, the science behind them, how they develop, what goes wrong across different conditions, and—most importantly—what we can do about it.
What is a “Sensory Error”?
A sensory error is the gap between what your brain expects to sense and what the body actually reports. Think of the brain as a prediction engine: it forecasts the next millisecond of vision, balance, touch, sound, and internal signals. When real input deviates from that forecast, the difference is an error. The brain uses that error to update its model of you-in-the-world.
In a healthy system, small errors are normal and useful; they fine-tune movement, posture, and perception.
In a dysregulated system, errors are too big, too frequent, or too ambiguous, so the brain can’t reduce them efficiently. Fatigue, dizziness, pain, anxiety, and “brain fog” often follow.
What is a “Sensory Mismatch”?
A sensory mismatch occurs when two (or more) sensory streams disagree about the same event. Your eyes say the room is stationary, but your vestibular system says you’re moving (cruise ship, VR headset). Or your joints say you’re leaning while your vision insists you’re straight. Mismatch forces the brain to choose, reweight, or fuse conflicting inputs. If it can’t reconcile them quickly, you feel disoriented, nauseated, unreal, or unsafe.
The Research, in Plain Language
Modern neuroscience frames the brain as a predictive, Bayesian organ: it minimizes surprise by comparing predictions to incoming data (prediction error) and reweighting senses by their precision (confidence). Several classic lines of research make this concrete:
Multisensory integration (superior colliculus, posterior parietal cortex, temporo-parietal junction): the brain fuses sight, sound, touch, vestibular, and proprioceptive cues when they agree and separates them when they conflict.
Illusion paradigms (Rubber Hand, McGurk, visual-vestibular conflict): controlled mismatches show how easily the brain can be persuaded to adopt an inaccurate body or world model when one channel is overweighted.
Cerebellar internal models: the cerebellum predicts sensory consequences of movement; large, persistent errors drive recalibration (as in prism adaptation).
Vestibular–visual reweighting: after vestibular injury, successful recovery correlates with flexible reweighting toward vision and proprioception, then gradual reintegration of vestibular cues.
Interoception and insula: mismatch between bodily state and its prediction amplifies anxiety, pain, and dysautonomia.
Predictive coding in pain, migraine, and functional disorders: when expected threat or pain is high and sensory precision is low, the brain can “explain” ambiguous input as pain, dizziness, or fatigue.
Development: How the Systems Learn to Talk
From infancy, the brain is calibrating:
Early months: Primitive reflexes fade as vision, vestibular input, and proprioception learn to align. The cerebellum and brainstem build timing maps; the parietal cortex builds body schema.
Toddler–childhood: Windows of opportunity for eye movements, posture, gait, and hand-eye coordination. Sensory streams are pruned, synchronized, and assigned “weights.”
Adolescence: Integration refines under load—sports, reading, social stress, screens, vehicles—stress-testing reweighting flexibility.
Adulthood: Integration is robust but plastic; injury, illness, or overload can de-tune the system. With training, it can be retuned.
What goes wrong?
Single-channel error: One sensor is noisy (e.g., neck proprioception after whiplash). The brain either downweights it or becomes stuck using it, leading to skewed maps.
Multi-channel mismatch: Two or more systems disagree (e.g., visual motion + static vestibular). If the brain cannot flexibly reweight, symptoms persist and generalize.
What Happens in the Brain During Errors & Mismatches
Cerebellum: computes prediction errors for movement and recalibrates internal models.
Brainstem vestibular nuclei: resolve visual–vestibular conflicts; project to autonomic centers (nausea, heart rate).
Posterior parietal cortex & TPJ: fuse body-in-space information; mismatches here feel like tilting, drifting, or depersonalization.
Insula & anterior cingulate: track interoceptive error; if amplified, the experience is anxiety, palpitations, breath dysregulation.
Prefrontal networks: set expectations; high threat/prediction can “explain away” ambiguous input as pain or dizziness.
Basal ganglia: adjust movement gain; instability in weighting feels like start–stop, overshoot, or bradykinesia.
Autonomic centers (NTS, hypothalamus): propagate mismatch into nausea, sweat, lightheadedness.
The Sensory Systems Involved
Vision: acuity, eye alignment, vergence, pursuit, saccades, optic flow.
Vestibular: semicircular canals (rotation), otoliths (tilt/translation), gravity sensing.
Proprioception: muscle spindles, joint mechanoreceptors (especially cervical spine and feet).
Somatosensation: light touch, vibration, pain, temperature.
Auditory: spatial cues, timing, intensity (links with balance and attention).
Interoception: heartbeat, breath, gut, temperature, hormonal states.
Olfaction/Gustation: context and autonomic coupling.
Motor Efference Copy: what the brain sent vs. what it sensed happened.
Common Combinations of Errors & Mismatches (Examples)
Visual–Vestibular: grocery-store aisles, scrolling, VR → dizziness, nausea, brain fog.
Cervical Proprioceptive–Vestibular: neck injury + balance → tilt, swaying, headaches.
Vision–Proprioception: poor eye teaming + unstable feet → clumsy gait, fatigue with reading.
Interoceptive–Exteroceptive: racing heart with quiet environment → anxiety, derealization.
Motor–Sensory (Efference–Afference): what you intended vs what you felt → ataxia, “lag,” tremor‐like corrections.
Auditory–Visual Timing: noisy venues → overload, migraine triggers.
Thermo/Noception–Proprioception: small fiber dysfunction → “burning with light touch.”
Conditions Often Involving Sensory Errors/Mismatches
Post-concussion & post-vestibular disorders (including PPPD)
Migraine (especially visual motion sensitivity)
Whiplash and cervicogenic dizziness
Binocular vision dysfunction, convergence insufficiency
Mal de Débarquement, motion sickness, cybersickness
Functional neurological disorders
Chronic pain, CRPS, fibromyalgia
Autism spectrum & sensory processing differences
ADHD and developmental coordination disorder
Dysautonomia/POTS (interoceptive mismatch)
Anxiety, depersonalization/derealization
Neuropathies (small fiber), peripheral deafferentation
Parkinsonian and cerebellar syndromes (recalibration deficits)
Typical Symptoms Patients Report
“The floor feels like a trampoline.”
“Grocery stores make me sea-sick.”
“My head is heavy; my body is light.”
“I’m here, but not here.”
Blurry or jumping vision with head movement
Heat, burning, or cold misread as pain
Fatigue, brain fog, poor concentration
Anxiety that rides in on the body’s signals
How Sensory Errors Become Persistent
Initial disruption (injury, illness, stress, overload) increases error.
Protective strategies (avoidance, bracing, visual dependence) reduce exposure but freeze maladaptive weighting.
Predictive threat increases; the brain assigns high precision to the prediction and low precision to new data.
Generalization: triggers spread—car rides → stores → screens → social settings.
Deconditioning & autonomic drift amplify symptoms to smaller and smaller stimuli.
Assessment: Finding the Mismatch
History of triggers (optic flow, head turns, busy patterns, heat/cold, cardio exertion)
Eye movement testing (pursuit, saccades, VOR, fixation stability, vergence)
Balance & gait under conditions (eyes open/closed, compliant surfaces, head motion)
Cervical joint position error (laser target, relocation accuracy)
Dynamic visual acuity, head-impulse, optokinetic sensitivity
Interoceptive tasks (paced breathing, heartbeat tracking)
Cognitive load with movement (dual-task cost)
Sensory reweighting screens (which channel dominates? which is underused?)
Treatment: How We Re-Tune the System
Principles
Specificity: train the exact mismatch that provokes symptoms, at the right dose.
Graded exposure: enough challenge to create correctable error, not enough to flood.
Reweighting: temporarily reduce an over-dominant channel and amplify the underused one, then reintegrate.
Context & state: autonomic regulation (breath, pacing, sleep) improves precision of signals.
Tools & Examples
Vestibular–Visual
Gaze stabilization (VOR x1/x2) progressing to complex backgrounds.
Optokinetic exposure with controlled parameters.
Walking head-turns; then add visual targets and dual-task.
Gradual VR/AR or screen-based optic flow dosing.
Cervical Proprioceptive
Deep neck flexor/extensor activation; scapular setting.
Laser head-repositioning accuracy tasks.
Smooth pursuit neck torsion (as tolerated).
Manual & movement therapies to restore joint afference.
Vision & Oculomotor
Vergence therapy, accommodation, pursuit/saccade drills tied to posture.
Ambient vision work (peripheral awareness) with balance.
Prism or occlusion strategies in select cases, with weaning plan.
Proprioception & Feet
Barefoot texture exposure; short-foot training.
Stance progressions: firm → foam → narrow → single-leg with head motion.
Locomotor tasks with variable surfaces and tempos.
Interoceptive & Autonomic
Resonant-frequency breathing; CO₂ tolerance work.
Isometric holds or light cardio to titrate baroreflex sensitivity.
Body-scan with movement (interoception + exteroception pairing).
Auditory–Visual Timing
Metronome entrainment; audiovisual sync drills.
Sound-field exposure controlling intensity and complexity.
Pain & Body Map
Graded motor imagery, left/right discrimination, mirror therapy.
Tactile discrimination and temperature contrast training.
Cognitive–Motor Integration
Dual-task progression (walk + recall; balance + calculation).
Task-switching under mild optic flow.
Lifestyle Anchors
Sleep regularity and light hygiene (morning daylight, evening dim).
Glycemic stability and hydration to reduce noise in interoception.
Strength and endurance dosing to improve signal-to-noise.
Stress skills: pacing, boundaries, and recovery rituals.
Adjuncts (when appropriate)
Temporary visual filters or tinted lenses for motion sensitivity.
Noisy vestibular stimulation or stochastic resonance (select cases).
Neuromodulation adjuncts (e.g., tDCS/TMS) paired with specific training.
Pharmacologic support for migraine, vestibular disorders, or severe autonomic dysregulation as part of a coordinated plan.
A Simple Progression Framework
Stabilize the platform: breath, sleep, nutrition, gentle daily rhythm.
Map the error: identify the smallest reliable trigger.
Dose the mismatch: 3–8 minutes of specific exposure, 1–2×/day, without crash.
Reweight and re-align: bias toward underused channels (e.g., reduce visual cues while loading vestibular/proprioception), then reintegrate vision.
Layer complexity: add cognitive tasks, speed, and environments.
Generalize to life: from clinic drills → home → community → sport/work.
Review and retune: weekly recalibration of thresholds and goals.
How This Feels When It’s Working
Triggers become smaller “blips” instead of tidal waves.
Your posture and eye movements feel fluent, less “held.”
You can shop, ride in cars, read, and scroll longer with less cost.
Anxiety drops because your body signals make sense again.
The world feels stable; you feel present in it.
Final Word
Sensory errors and mismatches are not the enemy; they’re messages. In a resilient system, those messages guide adaptation. In a sensitized system, they get stuck on loudspeaker. The path forward isn’t to silence the senses, but to teach them to sing together again—one cue, one breath, one carefully dosed challenge at a time.
References
References
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This piece really made me think, I especially loved your "prediction engine" analogy, it so clearly articulates something I'd felt but struggled to uderstand.