Speech in noise performance in individuals with misophonia and hyperacusis using behavioral and auditory brainstem response

Abstract

Hyperacusis is reduced tolerance to everyday environmental sounds, whereas misophonia is a relatively unknown disorder in which characterized by intense and excessive emotional responses to specific “trigger” sounds. Few studies have investigated ability of speech in noise (SiN) and examined them using auditory brainstem responses (ABR)—which is used to measure early auditory processing and overall hearing function in human listeners, in particular for the sound sensitivity disorders of misophonia and hyperacusis. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between SiN performance and ABR components, specifically for group differences. A total of 60 participants were categorized into three groups: 13 with misophonia, 12 with hyperacusis, and 35 control group. Our findings indicated that (1) the misophonia group showed poor speech in noise performance than control and hyperacusis groups at 20 and 5 SNR; (2) both hyperacusis and misophonia groups showed enhanced wave I amplitude compared with the control group; and (3) the misophonia group showed prolonged wave V latency compared to the other two groups. Additionally, delayed ABR wave V latency in misophonia group was correlated with decreased speech-in-noise performance score, suggesting possible delays in processing of speech sounds in this group leading to poorer performance.