NeuroProfile explained
A free questionnaire about your own patterns. It looks at how you respond to what your senses pick up, how hard you work to fit in, and how this affects daily life.
What is NeuroProfile?
A clearer picture of your own patterns
NeuroProfile is a free questionnaire with up to 129 questions in up to 9 sections. There are also 3 short questions about you at the start, such as whether you already have an autism diagnosis. It helps you describe your own patterns in plain words.
NeuroProfile gives you a separate result for each area it scores. It looks at your senses, social communication, masking, executive function, and more. Masking means hiding or changing how you naturally act, so that you fit in with other people. Executive function means planning, starting, and organising tasks.
Navigation
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The 9 sections
Each section covers one area
Each section asks about a different part of your experience. Together they give a fuller picture of your own patterns.
Social communication and interaction
How you navigate conversation, connection, and social expectations.
Routine, flexibility and special interests
How routine, change, and deep interests shape your day-to-day life.
Sensory processing
How you respond to what your senses pick up: sound, sight, touch, smell and taste together, balance and movement, and body awareness.
Masking and camouflaging
Masking (also called camouflaging) means hiding or changing how you naturally act, so that you fit in. This section asks how much effort that takes, and what it costs you.
Executive function
Executive function means the mental skills you use to plan, start, and organise tasks. This section asks how these work for you.
Emotional regulation
How you experience strong feelings, and how you manage them.
Communication preferences
How you prefer to communicate, and at what pace. This section is not scored.
Burnout and wellbeing indicators
Signs of long-lasting strain and exhaustion, and of being able to do less than usual.
Identity and late-diagnosis context
Questions about realising as an adult that you may be autistic. This section is not scored. You only see it if you say at the start that you do not have a formal autism diagnosis.
Where the questions come from
The questions are adapted from questionnaires published in peer-reviewed autism research. Peer-reviewed means other researchers checked the work before it was published.
6 sensory areas
Understanding your sensory profile
Your sensory profile shows how you respond to what your senses pick up. It covers six areas: sound, sight, touch, smell and taste together, balance and movement, and body awareness.
Sound (auditory)
How sound and noise levels affect comfort and focus.
Sight (visual)
How light, colour, and visual busyness affect comfort and focus.
Touch (tactile)
How touch, texture, and physical contact feel to you.
Smell and taste
How smells and tastes are experienced, including sensitivity and avoidance.
Balance and movement (vestibular)
Your sense of balance and motion, such as knowing which way up you are.
Body awareness (proprioceptive)
Sensing where your body and limbs are without looking.
Why these areas matter
Knowing your sensory profile can help you recognise your needs and explain them to other people. It can also help you choose changes that make daily life easier, such as a quieter place to work. Your results place each area in a band: low, moderate, high, or severe. A band is a fixed range of scores. It shows how much of that pattern you reported. It does not compare you with other people.
Masking
Masking in three parts, not one score
Masking means hiding or changing how you naturally act, so that you fit in with other people. Your results show it in three parts, so you can see how you mask — not just whether. One of the three parts is also called masking. That part means only the hiding.
Compensation
Actively working out social rules. These are things you have learned to do on purpose, to get through social situations that do not come naturally.
Examples: Planning what to say before a conversation, looking up social rules, practising conversations, making yourself keep eye contact when it is uncomfortable.
- A high score means you put a lot of effort into working out social rules
- A low score means you do not do this much, or do not need to
Masking
Hiding autistic responses. This means holding back things that feel natural to you, because other people might judge them. One example is stimming: repeated movements or sounds, such as rocking or humming, that help you feel calm or focused.
Examples: Holding back stimming, making yourself speak when not speaking feels right for you, hiding discomfort in noisy or bright places, pretending to understand jokes.
- A high score means you often hide autistic responses
- A low score means you do not hide them much
Assimilation
Forcing yourself through situations that do not fit you, so that you blend in. This is broader than the other two parts. It is about trying to seem like non-autistic people in general, not only in particular social situations.
Examples: Feeling like you're performing rather than being yourself, forcing yourself through social situations you'd rather avoid, changing appearance or mannerisms to blend in.
- A high score means you try hard to seem like non-autistic people
- A low score means you do not try to do this much
Why masking has three parts
One "high masking" score can hide important differences. You might have high compensation (putting effort into social situations) but low masking (not hiding how you naturally act). Or you might have high assimilation (trying to fit in) but low compensation (not using specific strategies).
Knowing your own pattern can help you see where you are putting in effort, and where you might choose to mask less. Your results show the three parts side by side. Where one part stands out most, your results mark it.
Burnout
Signs of burnout
Autistic burnout is deep, long-lasting exhaustion. It can build up after a long time of masking or coping with too much. Section 8 of the questionnaire asks about this. Your answers in section 8, about burnout and wellbeing, are placed in one of four bands: low, moderate, high, or severe. The band is not a diagnosis. A higher band is a signal to rest and reduce demands where you can.
What we measure
Your burnout band comes only from your answers in section 8. Your masking answers can also add a separate note that burnout may be worth reading about.
Very strong signal to rest, mask less where it is safe, and make sensory changes that help, such as ear defenders. You could tell your GP (general practitioner, your family doctor) how you are doing.
Strong signal to rest more, mask less where it is safe, and make sensory changes that help. Consider talking to a health professional.
Signal to pay attention to your energy, consider which kinds of masking you need and which you could drop, and build in more rest.
Your answers in section 8 were in the lowest band. If you still feel exhausted, take that seriously and rest where you can. The bands are provisional.
Important
Your burnout band is not a diagnosis. It is a signal to pay attention to your wellbeing. If you think you may be in burnout, you can talk to your GP.
If you feel unsafe or in crisis, contact one of these services. If you or someone else is in danger now, call 999. For urgent help that is not an emergency, call NHS 111 (NHS is the National Health Service). To talk to someone at any time, call Samaritans free on 116 123. If you would rather text than call, text SHOUT to 85258 (Shout is a free text service). These services are not run by SensoryShore. Read the safety page.
Your results
What your results include
When you finish, you get a results page. You can also download a report as a PDF (a type of file you can save and print). You can prepare a letter for your GP and download it too. Here is what they include.
Sensory profile overview
A clear view of your 6 sensory areas, with the band for each one.
Masking in three parts
Three separate scores for Compensation, Masking, and Assimilation. Understand which types of masking you use and how much.
Signs of burnout
Your burnout band for section 8 (low, moderate, high, or severe), and the separate note if your masking answers add it.
Written explanations
Clear, literal explanations of your results in plain English. Terms are explained where they first appear.
A letter for your GP
A letter you prepare and download yourself, to share with your GP or assessment team. It summarises your results in words. It gives them context for a conversation, not evidence for a referral (a request, usually from a GP, for you to have an autism assessment).
Keeping your results
Your results stay available in your account. You can also download your report as a PDF to keep.
SensoryShore is not a diagnostic tool and does not diagnose autism or any other condition. Your NeuroProfile results are there to help you understand yourself. Each score is calculated from your answers by fixed rules. No AI (artificial intelligence) is involved in scoring. The score bands are provisional, which means they may change. Clinicians (health professionals such as doctors and psychologists) have not yet checked them. No formal study of their accuracy has been run yet.
What you can use today
The NeuroProfile questionnaire is free to use, and you can pause and come back to it at any time.