Properties (9)
- purpleRed
Autistic traits, emotion regulation, and sensory sensitivities in children and adults with Misophonia
Status:: #status/reviewed
Metadata
- Item Type: #journalArticle
- Authors: L. J. Rinaldi, J. Simner, S. Koursarou, J. Ward
- Date: 2022-06-21
- Date Added: 2022-05-27
- URL: https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10803-022-05623-x
- DOI: 10.1007/s10803-022-05623-x
- Cite key: rinaldiAutisticTraitsEmotion2022
- Topics: ../Misophonia MOC
- Tags: #Misophonia
- PDF Attachments
Abstract
Misophonia is an unusually strong aversion to everyday sounds such as chewing, crunching, or breathing. Previous studies have suggested that rates of autism might be elevated in misophonia, and here we examine this claim in detail. We present a comprehensive review of the relevant literature, and two empirical studies examining children and adults with misophonia. We tested 142 children and 379 adults for traits associated with autism (i.e., attention-to-detail, attention-switching, social processing, communication, imagination, emotion regulation, and sensory sensitivity across multiple domains). Our data show that autistic traits are indeed elevated in misophonics compared to controls. We discuss our findings in relation to models of the interface between autism, sensory sensitivities, and the specific features of misophonia.
other Files
Related
Zotero links
Article Review table
| Background/Purpose | Background- • existing research suggests elevated rates of autism in Misophonics • Misophonia involves strong aversions to specific everyday sounds; associated with anger, disgust, panic, rage, and autonomic arousal • Prior studies suggest elevated traits overlapping with autism (e.g., perfectionism, anxiety, OCD traits) • Auditory over-responsiveness is a feature of autism; phenomenology differs from misophonia triggers • Neuroimaging: misophonia associated with increased activation/connectivity in anterior insula and salience network; regions implicated in autism • Prior misophonia-autism studies limited by lack of controls or exclusion of autistic individuals Purpose- • evaluate the validity of claims of elevated autism in Misophonics. • investigate emotional reactivity in Misophonics. • investigate sensory sensitivity in Misophonics. • predicts stranger autistic traits in Misophonics then controls as indicated by scores on the Autism Questionnaire. • predict Misophonic kids will score higher on tests of emotional dysregulation • Test whether autistic traits are elevated in adults and children with misophonia • Examine all five AQ subscales • Assess emotion reactivity in children • Assess sensory sensitivities (hyper/hypo; multiple domains) in children • Determine whether effects are present in population-screened child sample |
| Participants/samples | •EXP1- 126 Misophonic adults; 253 non-misophonic adults• EXP 2- 142 adolescents, 138 parents. |
| Measures | • Sussex Misophonia Scale.(SMS). • Autism Spectrum Quotient(AQ). • Sussex Misophonia scale for adolescents(SMS-A). • Perth Emotional Reactivity Scale(PERS). • the Parent-completed Glasgow Sensory Questionnaire. (GSQ-P) |
| Procedures | • EXP 1- administer AQ questionnaire to adults and children (completed via parents filling out the parent completed version of the AQ). • EXP 2- gave the SMS-A, PERS, and GSQ-P |
| Results | Experiment 1 (Adults) • Autistic traits (AQ total and subscales • Adults with misophonia scored higher overall on the AQ than controls (24.74 vs. 17.29); F(1,377)=91.48, p<.001 • Significant group × subscale interaction; F(3.38,1273.31)=10.04, p<.001 • Misophonics scored higher than controls on all five subscales (all corrected p<.001): • 21.4% of misophonics scored ≥32 (clinical cutoff) vs. 2.8% of controls; χ²(1)=33.62, p<.001 Experiment 2 (Children) • Autistic traits (AQ-Adolescent; parent report) • Children with misophonia scored higher overall than controls (25.00 vs. 18.78); F(1,120)=5.05, p=.027 • No group × subscale interaction; F(3.16,378.76)=1.42, p=.234 • Elevation present across subscales to a similar degree • Clinical cutoff (≥32): 12.5% misophonics vs. 10% controls; Fisher’s p=.616 • Emotional reactivity (PERS; child report) • Negative emotion reactivity higher in misophonia (62.90 vs. 41.27) • Positive emotion reactivity did not differ (48.91 vs. 52.07) • Main effect of group; F(1,119)=12.24, p<.001 • Group × valence interaction; F(1,119)=22.35, p<.001 • Post-hoc: misophonics higher for negative emotions; t(235)=-5.86, p<.001 • No difference for positive emotions; t(235)=-1.21, p=.229 • Group differences across activation (p=.004), intensity (p<.001), and duration (p=.026), with largest effects for activation and intensity • Sensory sensitivities (GSQ-P; parent report • Overall sensory sensitivity higher in misophonia (22.62 vs. 15.39); F(1,130)=4.25, p=.041 • Main effect of sensitivity type (hyper > hypo); F(1,130)=19.83, p<.001 • Group × sensitivity interaction; F(1,130)=5.54, p=.02 • Post-hoc: misophonics higher in hyper-sensitivity (2.16 vs. 1.20); t(195)=2.91, p=.004 • No difference in hypo-sensitivity; t(195)=-0.75, p=.453 • No three-way interaction with sense; hyper-sensitivity elevation present across sensory domains |
| Discussion/Limits | Conclusion- • data suggests autistic traits are elevated in Misophonics compared to controls. has implications for models of the interface between autism, sensory sensitivities, and the specific features of misophonia, • Autistic traits are elevated in adults with misophonia across all five AQ subscales (social skills, communication, imagination, attention-switching, attention-to-detail) • A substantial minority of adults with misophonia (21.4%) exceed the AQ clinical cutoff, although most do not • Autistic traits are also elevated in children with misophonia, indicating that this profile is present by ages 10–14 • Children with misophonia show increased emotional reactivity specifically to negative emotions (greater activation, intensity, duration), with no difference in positive emotions • Children with misophonia show increased sensory hyper-sensitivity across multiple sensory domains (not limited to audition) • No evidence that misophonia is associated with increased sensory hypo-sensitivity • Misophonia and autism are not equivalent conditions; most individuals with misophonia do not meet clinical thresholds for autism • The data support a non-trivial link between misophonia and autism-related traits in both adults and children |
| Limitations:: | • Small child misophonia sample (n = 15) • Adult misophonia sample partly self-referred • AQ cutoff does not equate to clinical diagnosis |
| Future Directions:: | • Greater focus on early identification of sensory sensitivities in children with misophonia • Further investigation of neurobiological overlap involving insula and salience network • Consideration of support implications, particularly for children |
| Relevance:: | • gives evidence of elevated rates of autistic traits in Misophonics |
Key terms
-
Misophonia – A condition characterized by unusually strong aversions to everyday sounds (e.g., chewing, breathing), accompanied by intense emotional and autonomic responses
-
Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) – A 50-item questionnaire measuring autistic traits across five subscales: social skills, communication, imagination, attention-switching, and attention-to-detail
-
Emotional reactivity – Individual differences in the activation, intensity, and duration of emotional responses
-
Emotion dysregulation – Difficulties regulating emotional responses, often reflected in heightened emotional reactivity
-
Sensory hyper-sensitivity – Heightened responsiveness to sensory input across domains (e.g., auditory, tactile, visual)
-
Sensory hypo-sensitivity – Reduced responsiveness to sensory input
-
Salience network – Neural network involving anterior insula and limbic regions implicated in emotional salience and previously linked to both misophonia and autism
Notes
my questions
my comments
misc. notes
- difference between the sound sensitives in misophonia vs autism Quote
- description and critique of Jager 2020 Quote
- TLDR description of concept of emotional reactivity Quote
- TLDR description of concept of sensory sensitivity Quote
- defense against recruitment bias Quote