Body

In a 2024 TMS study examining neurostimulation and cognitive restructuring for emotional distress in individuals with misophonia and emotional dysregulation, Neacsiu found that misophonic adults reported greater distress and more difficulty downregulating after trigger sounds, whereas clinical controls were more bothered by general aversive sounds. The authors interpreted this as sensitization: when someone is highly tuned to a specific sound category, that sound elicits an exaggerated perception of distress that can exceed the actual physiological response, reflecting a learned or heightened sensitivity rather than a parallel bodily reaction. (Neacsiu et al., 2024)