PP1406 - Audiological Assessment in Misophonia

Abstract:

Purpose:
The goal of this study is to evaluate whether individuals with misophonia present with a specific audiological profile.

Method:
Misophonia questionnaires will be administered to assess misophonia. A full hearing evaluation will be conducted, with extended high-frequency testing, the QUICKSIN, DPOAEs, and uncomfortable loudness levels (ULL).

Results:
pending data collection

Conclusions:
(Hypotheses): People with misophonia have better extended high frequencies and speech-in-noise scores, indicative of a heightened awareness of sound. DPOAEs will be within normal limits, indicating typical cochlear function and no peripheral deficits. Finally, ULL measures will be within normal limits, ruling out the presence of hyperacusis.

Summary:
There is some evidence that extended high-frequency pure tone testing may reveal significantly better thresholds in adults with normal thresholds and minimal tinnitus (Campbell, 2019), suggesting that in normal hearing, atypical auditory perception may be related to a heightened awareness of sound (Campbell et al., 2023). However, there is currently little audiological data in the misophonic population to indicate this. Thus, the goal of this study is to complete an audiologic battery on normal-hearing listeners with misophonia to determine whether heightened awareness of sound may be likely (via extended high-frequency thresholds and speech-in-noise outcomes), without hyperacusis being present (via ULL measures). In addition, DPOAEs will be used to verify typical cochlear function. Upon completion of this session, the participant will be able to define what misophonia is and identify audiologic clinical measures that may relate to misophonia severity. This study will test at least 20 participants with misophonia. The test battery for this study will include various misophonia questionnaires, to determine the severity of misophonia, and a full hearing evaluation including extended high frequencies, the QUICKSIN, DPOAEs, and ULL levels. The hypothesis of this study is people with misophonia have better extended high frequencies and speech-in-noise scores, indicative of a heightened awareness of sound. DPOAEs will be within normal limits, indicating typical cochlear function and an absence of subclinical peripheral deficits. Finally, ULL measures will be within normal limits, ruling out the presence of hyperacusis. Ideally, the results from this study will allow clinicians to have objective measures, to pair with subjective measures, to help diagnose misophonia.