Accurate perception of emotional information is crucial for social communication. Matus Laslofi/Flickr, CC BY-SAEvery day we’re confronted with information that stimulates many of our senses at the same time, but we don’t perceive this information in its component parts. Rather, we perceive it as a whole without being conscious of doing so. But people with bipolar disorder struggle with this integration process, and this might make it hard for them to communicate. Think about an explosion: the sight of the fireball might be sufficient to signal that an explosion has occurred, but we will know that it definitely has if we also hear a loud bang, smell smoke and feel heat from the fire. It’s the integration of all these different kinds of sensory information