The 'intense world' hypothesis was proposed by neuroscientists Henry and Kamila Markram, whose son is borderline autistic and has intense fears and anxieties and struggles with oversensitivity.

They and their colleague Tania Rinaldi to believe that sensory overload is at the heart of ASD.  They hypothesize that all the baffling and apparently incongruous features, from social and language impairment to obsessive behavior and the dazzling savant abilities, can be explained by a single neurological defect: a hyperactive brain that makes ordinary, everyday sensory experiences utterly overwhelming as the person with ASD perceives, feels and remembers too much.   

They believe this is why the infant withdraws to escape the confusion and that it also gives rise to repetitive behaviors such as rocking and head-banging, which can be seen as an attempt to bring order and predictability to a blaring world.