Question: ADHD is associated with some sensory processing issues. How does this fit into the current models of ADHD?
Answer: Problems with sensory processing can occur at various levels of brain processing of information and can be found in several disorders.  For instance, people with ASD often have sensory perceptual problems as you know related to lighting, clothes and their texture, touch, loud noise, etc.  This often occurs at very early stages of processing.  That is not so typical of ADHD unless it coexists with ASD. Instead, in ADHD, the problem is one of inhibition and gating at higher levels of cognitive activity in which competing forms of sensations distract or disrupt thinking and goal directed actions.  So that is not so much a processing problem as a gating and inhibition problem with competing sensory events not relevant to goals still crash into goal directed thinking.  NTs would have inhibited such competing information effortlessly but the ADHD brain and its weaker inhibitory systems may not do so as easily, at least by my line of reasoning.
content: Q: ADHD is associated with some sensory processing issues. How does this fit into the current models of ADHD?
   Ans: Problems with sensory processing can occur at various levels of brain processing of information and can be found in several disorders.  For instance, people with ASD often have sensory perceptual problems as you know related to lighting, clothes and their texture, touch, loud noise, etc.  This often occurs at very early stages of processing.  That is not so typical of ADHD unless it coexists with ASD. Instead, in ADHD, the problem is one of inhibition and gating at higher levels of cognitive activity in which competing forms of sensations distract or disrupt thinking and goal directed actions.  So that is not so much a processing problem as a gating and inhibition problem with competing sensory events not relevant to goals still crash into goal directed thinking.  NTs would have inhibited such competing information effortlessly but the ADHD brain and its weaker inhibitory systems may not do so as easily, at least by my line of reasoning.