Misophonia and other auditory affective processing

with Sivan Barashy, Daniel Berkowitz, David Vollweiller, Stephen Benning, Joel Snyder, and Erin Hannon.

Have you heard of, experience, or know someone who has misophonia? Misophonia is more common across the general population than previously thought, despite the disorder not appearing yet in the DSM5. Misophonia is a disorder where people react very negatively, typically with anger and disgust, towards certain triggering sounds. These sounds may not be bothersome to most people, but for people with misophonia, hearing their specifric trigger sounds can largely disrupt their qualities of life. I review in detail here what misophonia is and what it may be related to.

This project explores how misophonia is expressed in the general population, in both kids and adults. It also tests whether people who experience these heightened negative reactions to certain sounds also simultaneously have heightened positive reactions to other sounds, like as experienced with Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), musical chills, and musical aptitude and training in general.

As of now, we have found that the experience of misophonia may be related to ASMR and musical chills, but not general musical sophisitcation and aptitude. For more, see our preprint here.