Investigating misophonia: A review of the literature, clinical implications and research agenda reflecting current neuroscience and emotion research perspectives

Abstract

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Misophonia: Analysis of the neuroanatomic patterns at the basis of psychiatric symptoms and changes of the orthosympathetic/ parasympathetic balance

“…Among those areas, the anterior cingulate cortex and insular activity have been linked to increased cardiovascular arousal (Critchley, 2005). This statement was confirmed by the study of Kumar et al (2017), which showed that the augmented heart rate (HR) and galvanic skin response by "trigger sounds" were mediated by the activity of AIC in participants with misophonia.…”

“…As previously described, misophonia is a disorder characterized by reduced tolerance to specific sounds or stimuli known as "triggers, " which tend to evoke negative emotional, physiological, and behavioral responses (Kumar et al, 2017;Sweedo et al, 2022).…”

“…In each subject, six different stimulations with sounds that have been widely reported as "triggers" (Edelstein et al, 2013;Kumar et al, 2017;Sweedo et al, 2022) were administered in the following sequence to avoid any bias when interpreting the statistical results: crunchy sound, nails tapping, chewing sound, fast breathing, typing, and click pen sound. Baby crying was used as the "general annoyance" sound, too.…”

“…In addition, patients often develop coping mechanisms, such as avoiding social situations in which the trigger stimuli might occur ( Schröder et al, 2013 ; Taylor et al, 2014 ; Potgieter et al, 2019 ). To date, it has been clarified that misophonia is an affective auditory processing disorder ( Edelstein et al, 2013 ; Erfanian et al, 2017 ; Kumar et al, 2017 ) associated with an increased number of connections, or strength of connections, between the limbic and sympathetic nervous systems, which can cause abnormal processing of sound stimuli. In participants with misophonia, increased functional connectivity within brain regions like the anterior insular cortex (AIC), the anterior cingulate cortex, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the posteromedial cortex (posterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortex), the hippocampus, and the amygdala ( Kumar et al, 2017 ) could reflect abnormal salience attribution to misophonic stimuli ( Schröder et al, 2019 ; Seeley, 2019 ).…”

“…To date, it has been clarified that misophonia is an affective auditory processing disorder (Edelstein et al, 2013;Erfanian et al, 2017;Kumar et al, 2017) associated with an increased number of connections, or strength of connections, between the limbic and sympathetic nervous systems, which can cause abnormal processing of sound stimuli. In participants with misophonia, increased functional connectivity within brain regions like the anterior insular cortex (AIC), the anterior cingulate cortex, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the posteromedial cortex (posterior cingulate and retrosplenial cortex), the hippocampus, and the amygdala (Kumar et al, 2017) could reflect abnormal salience attribution to misophonic stimuli (Schröder et al, 2019;Seeley, 2019). In particular, it is noteworthy that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and posteromedial cortex are core parts of the default mode network (DMN) (Raichle et al, 2001), which are connected to AIC and are activated when subjects are engaged Grossini et al 10.3389/fnins.2022.827998 in internally directed thoughts and retrieval of memories (Huijbers et al, 2011).…”