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non-trigger stimuli reveals fundamental cortical processing differences independent of emotional reactivity

Karupaiah et al. (2025) deliberately used a non-trigger speech stimulus (/da/) confirmed to be aversive to none of their misophonic participants, finding that earlier P1-N1-P2 latencies, reduced N1 amplitudes, and atypical scalp topographies nonetheless emerged in the misophonia group relative to controls. The authors interpret this as evidence that misophonia involves fundamental alterations in auditory cortical processing that are not contingent on emotional reactivity to trigger sounds, suggesting a generalized difference in how the auditory system operates rather than a stimulus-specific response. Whether these differences are predisposing to misophonia or acquired through repeated emotional exposure to triggers remains an open question (Karupaiah et al., 2025).