Misophonia is Associated with Altered Brain Activity in the Auditory Cortex and Salience Network

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2019 May 19

PMID 31101901

Citations 46

Authors

Arjan Schroder

Guido van Wingen

Nadine Eijsker

Renee San Giorgi

Nienke C Vulink

Collin Turbyne

Damiaan Denys

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Misophonia is characterized by intense rage and disgust provoked by hearing specific human sounds resulting in social isolation due to avoidance. We exposed patients with symptom provoking audiovisual stimuli to investigate brain activity of emotional responses. 21 patients with misophonia and 23 matched healthy controls were recruited at the psychiatry department of the Amsterdam UMC. Participants were presented with three different conditions, misophonia related cues (video clips with e.g. lip smacking and loud breathing), aversive cues (violent or disgusting clips from movies), and neutral cues (video clips of e.g. someone meditating) during fMRI. Electrocardiography was recorded to determine physiological changes and self-report measures were used to assess emotional changes. Misophonic cues elicited anger, disgust and sadness in patients compared to controls. Emotional changes were associated with increases in heart rate. The neuroimaging data revealed increased activation of the right insula, right anterior cingulate cortex and right superior temporal cortex during viewing of the misophonic video clips compared to neutral clips. Our results demonstrate that audiovisual stimuli trigger anger and physiological arousal in patients with misophonia, associated with activation of the auditory cortex and salience network.

Citing Articles

The Impact of Disgusting Sounds on Pupil Diameter of Misophonic and Non-Misophonic Listeners.

Oszczapinska U, Park S, Qiu Y, Nance B, Julien M, Heller L Psychophysiology. 2025; 62(2):e70014.

PMID: 39981631 PMC: 11843529. DOI: 10.1111/psyp.70014.

Clinical Considerations for Integrating Ethical Principles of Beneficence in the Development of Evidence-Based Interventions: The case of Pediatric Misophonia.

Spencer S, Petersen J, Schneider R, Guzick A, McGuire J Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2024; .

PMID: 39269531 DOI: 10.1007/s10802-024-01247-0.

Sex-Specific Correlations Between Misophonia Symptoms and ADHD, OCD, and Autism-Related Traits in Adolescent Outpatients.

Herdi O, Yildirim F Noro Psikiyatr Ars. 2024; 67(3):248-254.

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Is misokinesia sensitivity explained by visual attentional orienting? ERP evidence from an emotional oddball task suggests no.

Jaswal S, Handy T PLoS One. 2024; 19(7):e0306464.

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