Poster No:
2000
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Marie Anick Savard1, Mickael Deroche1, Emily Coffey1
Institutions:
1Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Misophonia is a disorder characterized by intense negative emotional responses to specific trigger sounds, significantly impacting daily functioning and quality of life (Brout et al., 2018; Rouw & Erfanian, 2018; Swedo et al., 2022,). While prior research has highlighted the involvement of higher-level cognitive processes in misophonia (e.g., in Savard et al., 2022), their role in modulating misophonic responses remains insufficiently explored. Reports from individuals with misophonia suggest that coping strategies such as listening to music or focusing on alternative tasks (Rosenthal et al., 2021) may reduce misophonic distress by engaging attentional networks and executive functions. These observations underscore the potential importance of attentional mechanisms in managing misophonic reactions, and offer a promising avenue for investigating the condition's neural underpinnings. As such, the goal of the current study was to investigate how selective attention modulates brain activity in individuals with misophonia, providing insights into the neural mechanisms underlying the regulation of misophonic responses.
Methods:
The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine brain activity during a selective auditory attention task in individuals with and without misophonia. Participants (N=100; 50 with misophonia, 50 age-and-sex-matched controls) listened to two concurrent auditory streams presented through ear inserts: one comprising trigger or neutral sounds, and the other featuring unfamiliar instrumental musical excerpts. During each trial, participants were instructed to selectively attend to either the sound or music stream. Physiological measures (heart rate, skin conductance) were recorded during the task to assess autonomic responses associated with auditory processing and attentional modulation.
Results:
Comparisons between groups revealed differential patterns of brain activity associated with selective attention to neutral and trigger sounds. Individuals with misophonia demonstrated heightened activation in limbic regions, such as the anterior insula and amygdala, during trigger sound processing, consistent with findings from previous neuroimaging studies (Kumar et al., 2017; Schroder et al., 2019). Preliminary results further suggest that directing attention away from trigger sounds and toward the music stream reduced limbic hyperactivation, reflecting the modulatory role of attentional control in misophonia.
Conclusions:
These findings highlight the potential role of attentional control- a higher-level cognitive process that can be enhanced with training-in alleviating emotional distress in misophonia. By showing how attentional modulation influences brain activity during trigger sound processing, this study provides a neural basis for coping strategies reported by individuals with misophonia. These insights suggest that targeted interventions, such as attentional training, could help individuals manage their reactions more effectively and improve their quality of life.
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
BOLD fMRI 2
Perception, Attention and Motor Behavior:
Attention: Auditory/Tactile/Motor 1
Keywords:
ADULTS
Cognition
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Hearing
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Task-activation
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Healthy subjects
Was this research conducted in the United States?
No
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
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Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel?
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Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Functional MRI
Neurophysiology
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
3.0T
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
SPM
FSL
Provide references using APA citation style.
Brout, J. J., Edelstein, M., Erfanian, M., Mannino, M., Miller, L. J., Rouw, R., Kumar, S., & Rosenthal, M. Z. (2018). Investigating Misophonia: A Review of the Empirical Literature, Clinical Implications, and a Research Agenda. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 12, 1–13.
Kumar, S., Tansley-Hancock, O., Sedley, W., Winston, J. S., Callaghan, M. F., Allen, M., Cope, T. E., Gander, P. E., Bamiou, D.-E., & Griffiths, T. D. (2017). The Brain Basis for Misophonia. Current Biology, 27(4), 527–533.
Rosenthal, M. Z., Anand, D., Cassiello-Robbins, C., Williams, Z. J., Guetta, R. E., Trumbull, J., & Kelley, L. D. (2021). Development and Initial Validation of the Duke Misophonia Questionnaire. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 709928.
Rouw, R., & Erfanian, M. (2018). A Large-Scale Study of Misophonia. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 74(3), 453–479.
Savard, M.-A., Sares, A. G., Coffey, E. B. J., & Deroche, M. L. D. (2022). Specificity of Affective Responses in Misophonia Depends on Trigger Identification. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 16, 879583.
Schröder, A., van Wingen, G., Eijsker, N., San Giorgi, R., Vulink, N. C., Turbyne, C., & Denys, D. (2019). Misophonia is associated with altered brain activity in the auditory cortex and salience network. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 1–9.
Swedo, S. E., Baguley, D. M., Denys, D., Dixon, L. J., Erfanian, M., Fioretti, A., ... & Raver, S. M. (2022). Consensus definition of misophonia: a delphi study. Frontiers in neuroscience, 16, 841816.
No