How do our past experiences affect how our brain processes sounds?
In 2017, Dr Sukhbinder Kumar changed the course of misophonia research history with his seminal paper, The Brain Basis for Misophonia. In his heavily-anticipated sequel, he will continue his work looking at what happens in the brain when we hear misophonic trigger sounds.
Dr Kumar’s Brain Basis study found that one of the parts of the brain that “lights up” when we hear trigger sounds is the “salience network”, which is used when we apply meaning to something. This could be why it’s hard to ignore the sound, because our brains are registering it as important in some (not good) way.
In his upcoming study, funded by the Misophonia Research Fund, he will test the theory that the way we process sounds might be shaped by our past experiences. Like, if your sibling’s chosen method of torture was to munch doritos in your ear, then you might feel like someone is making sounds deliberately to annoy you, even when you know logically that they are not. At least, I hope they are not. Who does that?
This study will be recruiting soon. The team are in the process of setting up a website and will let us know when it goes live. Sign up to our research participant mailing list to be notified when recruitment starts.
Title: Role of expectations and beliefs in driving brain activity in misophonia
Main researcher: Dr. Sukhbinder Kumar, Newcastle University
Funding: Misophonia Research Fund, from the REAM Foundation
“A study aiming to examine top-down factors relating to sound and its origin, as well as its role in driving cognitive operations that play a role in misophonic brain activity via two fMRI studies.”
Timeframe: October 2020 - September 2022 (COVID dependant)
Source: Misophonia Research Fund Website