Work

Altered intrinsic brain connectivity in misophonia, with and without hyperacusis

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Misophonia and loudness hyperacusis are debilitating sound intolerance conditions marked by extreme emotional and physiological responses to everyday sounds. Although frequently co-occurring, their distinct neural correlates remain poorly delineated. In an exploratory data-driven analysis, we identified neural-connectivity based markers of misophonia among cortical and subcortical networks in the brain using resting-state fMRI data. We leveraged an optimized and cross-validated machine learning framework to sift through >85 thousand functional connections and to evaluate detectability of misophonia, in isolation and when comorbid with hyperacusis. Participants were rigorously categorized using structured interviews into misophonia-only (MI), misophonia with hyperacusis (MH), and control (CTR) groups. Classifier models trained on individual functional connectivity distinguished both MI and MH from CTR, with 63 % and 67 % test prediction accuracy respectively. Core misophonia-related alterations consistently emerged across both groups, particularly in salience, somatomotor, and frontoparietal control networks, implying disruptions in emotion regulation, motor inhibition, and attentional control, respectively. Specific to misophonia-only were connectivity abnormalities in the basal ganglia and subcortex, suggesting a neural dissociation between MI and MH conditions. In contrast, connectivity trends unique to MH revealed networks implicated in higher-order visual processing, likely reflecting hyperacusis-linked processes. These findings offer a refined neurobiological dissociation between misophonia and hyperacusis and underscore the importance of careful diagnostic separation in both research and clinical contexts. By isolating misophonia-relevant brain networks, our results provide actionable insight into the development of precise neuroscience-informed interventions. In particular, they support psychology-based therapy to target dysfunctional connectivity in salience and control circuits for treating misophonia.

Source: Hearing Research

DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2025.109521