Poster No:
451
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Nimesha Gerlus1, Rachael Wright1, Kevin LaBar1, Andrada Neacsiu2
Institutions:
1Duke University, Durham, NC, 2Duke Unversity Medical Center, Durham, NC
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Misophonia is a disorder of intolerance to specific sounds or associated stimuli, often leading to significant emotional distress (Swedo et al., 2022). Given emerging evidence that neurostimulation-based interventions may effectively treat misophonic distress (Neacsiu et al., 2024), a clearer understanding of neural structures associated with misophonia is needed. Thus far, no MRI studies have examined brainstem morphometry in misophonia, a condition with both auditory and affective components. The human brainstem is a complex subcortical structure that receives ascending auditory input to the cortex and contributes to emotional responses through its regulation of the autonomic nervous system. However, along with the cerebellum, it is understudied in clinical literature due to its absence from several widely used neuroimaging software packages and atlas labeling schemes for automated segmentation of brain structures. Here, we aim to compare brainstem and cerebellar morphometry in adults with misophonia to that of two control groups: adults with no psychiatric history, and adults with a psychiatric disorder and clinical difficulty regulating emotions. We hypothesized that adults with misophonia would show larger brainstem volumes than both control groups given the critical involvement of the brainstem in auditory pathways.
Methods:
Adults with misophonia (n = 27, M_age=28.4, 96.3%F) and adults with at least 1 DSM-V psychiatric disorder and clinical difficulty regulating emotions (n = 27, M_age=27.4, 92.6%F) were recruited from the community as part of a clinical neurostimulation trial. Adults with no psychiatric history (n = 27, M_age=26.3, 70.4%F) were recruited from the community as part of a separate study on learning and motivation. All participants completed a T1-weighted MRI in a 3T GE scanner. Freesurfer's Bayesian brainstem segmentation module (Iglesias et al., 2015) was used to extract region-of-interest (ROI) vertex-based volumes from brainstem structures (whole brainstem, medulla, pons, superior cerebellar peduncle [SCP], and midbrain), while the subcortical segmentation module (Fischl et al., 2002) was used to extract the left and right cerebellar volumes. Group differences in ROI volumes were modeled with one-way ANOVAs and controlled for estimated total intracranial volume.
Results:
ROI analyses showed a significant effect of group on medulla, midbrain, SCP, and whole-brainstem volumes (F[2] = 4.2-57.7, ps < .02). Tukey post-hoc comparisons showed that medulla, midbrain and whole-brainstem volumes are significantly larger in adults with misophonia compared to non-clinical controls, as well as significantly larger in adults with emotion dysregulation compared to non-clinical controls (ps < .02); SCP volume was only significantly larger in the adults with emotion dysregulation compared to non-clinical controls (p < .02). Pons and cerebellar ROI morphometry did not yield significant between-group effects. No significant volumetric differences between adults with misophonia and clinical controls were found.
Conclusions:
In partial support of our hypothesis, adults with misophonia show larger volumes of specific brainstem structures compared to non-clinical controls. However, adults with emotion dysregulation in the clinical control group also show larger volumes of these structures compared to non-clinical controls, suggesting that greater brainstem morphometry may broadly index psychopathology and/or difficulty regulating emotional distress rather than specifically index misophonia. The results underscore the need to continue developing and refining brainstem segmentation methods to test whether findings are replicable using other software packages. Future research should determine whether auditory and affective behavioral characteristics are associated with brainstem morphometry differences between adults with misophonia, clinical controls, and non-clinical controls.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Activation (eg. BOLD task-fMRI)
Other Methods 2
Novel Imaging Acquisition Methods:
Anatomical MRI
Keywords:
Brainstem
Cerebellum
Emotions
STRUCTURAL MRI
Other - misophonia
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
By submitting your proposal, you grant permission for the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) to distribute your work in any format, including video, audio print and electronic text through OHBM OnDemand, social media channels, the OHBM website, or other electronic publications and media.
I accept
The Open Science Special Interest Group (OSSIG) is introducing a reproducibility challenge for OHBM 2025. This new initiative aims to enhance the reproducibility of scientific results and foster collaborations between labs. Teams will consist of a “source” party and a “reproducing” party, and will be evaluated on the success of their replication, the openness of the source work, and additional deliverables. Click here for more information.
Propose your OHBM abstract(s) as source work for future OHBM meetings by selecting one of the following options:
I am submitting this abstract as an original work to be reproduced. I am available to be the “source party” in an upcoming team and consent to have this work listed on the OSSIG website. I agree to be contacted by OSSIG regarding the challenge and may share data used in this abstract with another team.
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):
Patients
Was this research conducted in the United States?
Yes
Are you Internal Review Board (IRB) certified?
Please note: Failure to have IRB, if applicable will lead to automatic rejection of abstract.
Yes, I have IRB or AUCC approval
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
Yes
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel?
NOTE: Any animal studies without IACUC approval will be automatically rejected.
No
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Structural MRI
TMS
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
3.0T
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
FSL
Free Surfer
Provide references using APA citation style.
1. Swedo SE, Baguley DM, Denys D, Dixon LJ, Erfanian M, Fioretti A, et al. Consensus Definition of Misophonia: A Delphi Study. Frontiers in Neuroscience. 2022/03/17;16.
2. Neacsiu AD, Beynel L, Gerlus N, LaBar KS, Bukhari-Parlakturk N, Rosenthal MZ. An experimental examination of neurostimulation and cognitive restructuring as potential components for Misophonia interventions. J Affect Disord. 2024;350:274-85.
3. Iglesias JE, Van Leemput K, Bhatt P, Casillas C, Dutt S, Schuff N, et al. Bayesian segmentation of brainstem structures in MRI. Neuroimage. 2015;113:184-95.
4. Fischl B, Salat DH, Busa E, Albert M, Dieterich M, Haselgrove C, et al. Whole brain segmentation: automated labeling of neuroanatomical structures in the human brain. Neuron. 2002;33(3):341-55.
No