Misophonia symptom severity is linked to impaired flexibility and heightened rumination, 2025, Black+

[Chandelier]

https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjop.70025

Vivien K. Black, Kenneth J.D. Allen, Hashir Aazh, Sheri L. Johnson, Mercede Erfanian

Abstract​

Misophonia is a disorder involving sensitivity to certain sounds and related stimuli.
Here, we explore the relationship between misophonia and affective flexibility, which describes cognitive shifting abilities in the face of emotion-evoking stimuli.
The secondary aim of this study is to test the potential association between misophonia and cognitive flexibility, building upon findings from previous research.
The third objective is to examine the relationship between misophonia and rumination.

One hundred and forty participants completed the Memory and Affective Flexibility Task (MAFT), designed to assess affective flexibility, as well as a battery of self-report measures to evaluate misophonia severity, cognitive flexibility, and rumination.
Results suggested an inverse relationship between affective flexibility as measured by switch accuracy, but not reaction time, and misophonia severity.
Cognitive flexibility was also inversely associated with misophonia severity, but was not attributed to task-based affective flexibility, suggesting two independent constructs both involved in misophonia manifestation.
Rumination associated positively with misophonia severity and inversely with cognitive flexibility, but not affective flexibility.

Taken together, these findings highlight a unique cognitive profile of misophonia, characterized by rigidity at the psychological level through cognitive inflexibility and rumination, as well as at the executive function level in terms of affective switching difficulties.

 

[Chandelier]

Misofonie: Scheidungsgrund Schlürfen

Raschel, knusper, schmatz: Manche Menschen hassen bestimmte Geräusche. Wie sie ticken, haben Forschende jetzt untersucht. Vor allem die Bildertests waren aufschlussreich.

www.zeit.de

AI Summary:

Reason for Divorce: Slurping

An international research team has examined how people who are disgusted by certain sounds—such as eating or breathing noises—think and feel. The phenomenon is known as misophonia, literally “hatred of sound.”

Psychiatrist Damiaan Denys from the University of Amsterdam began studying misophonia after meeting a patient who fantasized about suffocating her husband in his sleep because she could not stand the sound of his breathing. Denys has encountered children who cannot share meals with their families, couples whose relationships have broken down because of soup-slurping, and people who have isolated themselves socially due to everyday noises.

To explore the underlying mechanisms, an international team conducted detailed experiments with 140 participants, a quarter of whom had clinically significant misophonia. The study, published in the British Journal of Psychology, involved several tests. Participants were shown pictures and asked to decide whether they had seen them before or to judge whether the images were positive or negative. They also rated how much certain personality statements applied to them, such as “I can’t easily change my perspective,” or “I often brood over past situations.”

The findings revealed that people with strong misophonia showed less cognitive flexibility and tended to ruminate more. The most striking results came from the image task: those affected by misophonia had greater difficulty switching from one mental task to another, particularly from memory-based tasks to emotional evaluations. The researchers concluded that these individuals were not only cognitively but also emotionally less flexible—they had a harder time shifting their perspective, especially regarding emotional experiences.

Interestingly, while some people are repelled by such sounds, others experience pleasure from them. A phenomenon known as ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) has become highly popular online. ASMR triggers a pleasant tingling sensation—often described as relaxing or sleep-inducing—through certain auditory stimuli, including eating sounds. On YouTube, ASMR is one of the most searched terms, with videos featuring rustling, tapping, and slurping noises. The related trend of Mukbang, originating in South Korea, involves people eating in front of an audience, often generating such sounds; some even make money from it. There are also erotic ASMR videos that attract millions of views.

For researchers like Denys, this contrast offers potential therapeutic insight. They are experimenting with treatments that retrain the brain to associate disliked sounds with positive feelings, thereby reducing the negative emotional link. One example involves showing patients a video of someone walking through snow—producing a pleasant crunching sound—which is in fact the sound of someone eating chips.

Through such approaches, scientists hope to help those whose lives are severely disrupted by everyday noises—where the sound of slurping soup might otherwise become a reason for conflict, even divorce.

 

[Utsikt]

From the conclusion:

By delineating these characteristics, the study contributes to reducing the risk of misdiagnosis and enhances our understanding of the cognitive and affective processes involved in misophonia. Importantly, this research offers practical implications for clinical practice, encouraging a more targeted approach to treatment protocols that emphasize addressing the cognitive aspects of misophonia.

Meaning that they’ve not understood a single thing about how correlation doesn’t imply causation.

 

[Verity]

Does this strike anyone else as “symptom of autism is linked to other symptoms of autism”? I wonder how many undiagnosed people were in the study.