Beyond the Sound: The Role of the Source of Human-Made Trigger Sounds in Misophonia

Misophonia is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterised by abnormally extreme reactions to certain sensory stimuli. In this paper, we aimed to investigate the effect of the individual producing the human-generated trigger sound on the level of discomfort reported to the trigger sound. Our hypothesis was that when the misophonic sound is presented with the information that it is produced by a relative, it will create more subjective discomfort than the sound presented with the information that is not produced by a relative.

This experimental study was conducted with 15 participants aged 18-65 years living in Antalya who volunteered to participate in the study.

In the first comparison, participants reported more subjective discomfort when the voice from the sound bank was presented with the information that it was produced by the relative than when the relative's voice was presented with the information that it was not produced by the relative (p<0.001). In the second comparison, participants reported more subjective discomfort when the voice of the relative was presented with the information that it was produced by the relative than when the voice of the relative was presented with the information that it was not produced by the relative (p=0.001). In the final comparison, there was no significant difference in subjective discomfort between presenting the voice of the voice bank with the information that it was produced by the relative and presenting the voice of the relative with the information that it was produced by the relative (p=0.783).

In conclusion, it seems source of the trigger, especially for human-made sounds, is more important than the trigger sound itself.