Feasibility of Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy for Characterizing Misophonia-Related Brain Activity

Misophonia, a condition marked by intolerance to specific sounds, triggers intense negative reactions in sufferers. To grasp the neural processes behind misophonia, researchers have suggested functional neuroimaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, the noisy fMRI setting can heighten anxiety, distract from auditory stimuli, and be expensive.

To explore a more feasible alternative, researchers propose functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for detecting misophonia-related responses.

The feasibility of fNIRS in identifying misophonia-related reactions was examined in this study. Ten adults with mild to insignificant misophonia symptoms were monitored while they listened to trigger, unpleasant, and neutral sounds. The researchers recorded fNIRS, electrodermal activity (EDA), and photoplethysmography (PPG) data during the experiment. Participants also rated their annoyance and antisociality after each sound.

The findings indicated that trigger and unpleasant sounds elicited higher subjective annoyance ratings and prompted greater neural responses in the orofacial area compared to neutral sounds. Additionally, neural responses appeared to correlate with annoyance ratings. Notably, heart rate (HR) was significantly lower during unpleasant sounds compared to neutral and trigger sounds, with no substantial difference in EDA features.

These results suggest that fNIRS can effectively measure misophonia responses in a quiet environment. Furthermore, the brain and physiological responses aligned with earlier fMRI findings, confirming the potential of fNIRS as a viable method for studying misophonia.