Creating and Validating Stimuli to Study Misophonia Triggers
Abstract
Misophonia is a condition characterized by an intense, uncontrollable hatred or fear of certain trigger sounds. Common triggers include breathing, chewing, eating, sneezing, and coughing, making it difficult for those who suffer to endure everyday life with their loved ones. This study focused on those trigger sounds as well as other common aversive and non-aversive sounds and aimed to recreate them. By generating videos of these stimuli and making an experiment to validate them, we created the tools needed for future research. Using previous misophonia research, we made a list of common triggers, aversive, and non-aversive sounds, and then created a checklist to make sure all our videos were of equal quality. These qualifications included a continuous, recognizable sound and video, audio and visual match, landscape orientation, 4:3 ratio, and a file size under 1mb. The stimuli were then split into four batches and made into four experiments. Three had 16 aversive and 16 non aversive stimuli each, and the fourth with all of the trigger stimuli. Each trial within the experiments contained either an audio, video, or audiovisual clip of each stimulus followed by a valence/arousal grid and an aversiveness scale with values ranging from negative nine to positive nine. Three out of the four experiments are currently collecting data and expected to be completed mid-to-late September. The final set of validated stimuli can be used in fMRI studies on the neuroscientific basis of misophonia, and research of future treatment.
Creating and Validating Stimuli to Study Misophonia Triggers
HSS 210
Misophonia is a condition characterized by an intense, uncontrollable hatred or fear of certain trigger sounds. Common triggers include breathing, chewing, eating, sneezing, and coughing, making it difficult for those who suffer to endure everyday life with their loved ones. This study focused on those trigger sounds as well as other common aversive and non-aversive sounds and aimed to recreate them. By generating videos of these stimuli and making an experiment to validate them, we created the tools needed for future research. Using previous misophonia research, we made a list of common triggers, aversive, and non-aversive sounds, and then created a checklist to make sure all our videos were of equal quality. These qualifications included a continuous, recognizable sound and video, audio and visual match, landscape orientation, 4:3 ratio, and a file size under 1mb. The stimuli were then split into four batches and made into four experiments. Three had 16 aversive and 16 non aversive stimuli each, and the fourth with all of the trigger stimuli. Each trial within the experiments contained either an audio, video, or audiovisual clip of each stimulus followed by a valence/arousal grid and an aversiveness scale with values ranging from negative nine to positive nine. Three out of the four experiments are currently collecting data and expected to be completed mid-to-late September. The final set of validated stimuli can be used in fMRI studies on the neuroscientific basis of misophonia, and research of future treatment.
