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predicting sound tolerance via acoustic summary statistics in Misophonia

In a 2025 study, Clonan predicted misophonia discomfort ratings and characterized individual acoustic sensitivities by deriving midbrain modulation power spectra from FOAMS sounds and fitting individualized GPR models, then projecting model weights into interpretable perceptual transfer functions. They found that acoustic summary statistics predicted tolerance ratings across participants with distinct aversion profiles, that transfer function gain and intercept tracked DMQ and S-Five scores, and that the models extrapolated to untested ESC50 sounds and detected triggers in continuous audio. From this they concluded that bottom-up spectrotemporal modulation features can characterize individualized misophonic aversion and may have applications in precision diagnosis and management (Clonan et al., 2025).