“HSP” is essentially psychological jargon that in actuality refers to high SPS, or Sensory-Processing Sensitivity. SPS is a genetic trait difference in the extent to which individuals deeply process stimuli in their environment (Bakker and Moulding, 2012). High SPS presents in roughly twenty percent of the population, and isn’t limited to humans; HSP has also been documented in higher animals in approximately the same ratio, one out of five. As a temperament trait, high SPS manifests in emotional, social, and physical sensitivity to stimuli, and is associated with genetic markers and altered neural responses compared to non-HS …show more content…
Much like dopamine, serotonin is a neurotransmitter that regulates mood, as well as sleep and appetite. A longitudinal experiment whose results were published a few months ago in 2015 detailed how 209 infants were followed for approximately three years in order to measure sleep and temperament data. In the study, the subjects were tested for a variety of genotypes relating to serotonin transporters. The results showed that subjects who exhibited emotional turbulence and sensory sensitivity were exclusive to those with low-expressing 5-HTTLPR genotypes (Bouvette-Turcot, 2015). 5-HTTLPR is a serotonin transporter gene, whose short allele’s presence can now be marked for increased environmental sensitivity regarding emotional and behavioral