Authors: Nesmah Parackodan¹, Prashanth Prabhu P¹
¹All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH), Mysore
Background: Misophonia is a sound intolerance condition characterized by intense emotional responses to specific repetitive sounds. While increasingly discussed in clinical literature, its status as a distinct audiological disorder remains unresolved. Emerging evidence suggests atypical auditory processing and reduced selective attention during trigger exposure, highlighting the need for objective assessment of central auditory function.
Method: Fifteen adults with misophonia were compared with age-matched healthy controls. Participants underwent dichotic CV testing under three 1-minute conditions: quiet, neutral, and individualized trigger sounds. Stimuli were drawn from the International Affective Digitized Sounds and validated misophonia sound lists. Right correct scores (RCS), left correct scores (LCS), and double correct scores (DCS) were recorded to assess binaural integration performance.
Results: Control group scores remained stable across all three conditions. In the misophonia group, significant condition effects were observed for RCS (F = 6.41, p = 0.004, η² = 0.23), LCS (F = 11.99, p < 0.001, η² = 0.36), and DCS (F = 26.26, p < 0.001, η² = 0.56), indicating large effect sizes with DCS showing the strongest condition-related deterioration. Between-group comparisons at the trigger condition revealed significantly poorer scores in the misophonia group for RCS (t = 5.25, p < 0.001, d = 1.92), LCS (t = 7.41, p < 0.001, d = 2.71), and DCS (t = 9.21, p < 0.001, d = 3.36), all reflecting very large effect sizes.
Conclusion: Trigger sounds selectively impair auditory listening and binaural integration in individuals with misophonia, while controls remain unaffected. The consistent performance decline across RCS, LCS, and DCS highlights the clinical relevance of incorporating dichotic listening assessment in the audiological evaluation of misophonia.
