Sensory processing sensitivity is associated with state-dependent stabilization of perceptual organization in...

Perceptual experience is shaped not only by external input but also by stable individual traits. Here, we investigated how sensory processing sensitivity, a personality trait reflecting responsiveness to sensory input, relates to the temporal dynamics of bistable auditory streaming. Forty-eight participants listened to repeating triplet-tone sequences and continuously reported their percepts as they switched between an integrated one-stream percept and a segregated two-stream percept. Greater sensory processing sensitivity was reliably associated with longer percept durations in the two-stream state and fewer perceptual switches overall. A Bayesian beta-regression model provided little evidence that this pattern reflected a generic bias toward segregation or a global slowing of perceptual dynamics. In contrast, a time-resolved discrete-time hazard model indicated that greater sensory processing sensitivity was linked to a lower termination probability for the two-stream percept relative to the one-stream percept. A Gamma distributional regression further showed that trait-related differences were expressed mainly as changes in dominance-duration timescale, whereas effects on distributional regularity were modest. Thus, sensory processing sensitivity was associated with the temporal dynamics of auditory streaming mostly through the stabilization of perceptual segregation once established. This state-dependent pattern is broadly compatible with a predictive-processing framework, in which stronger weighting of temporal regularity cues could stabilize an already established perceptual organization.