Funded Research
The Misophonia Research Fund has committed more than $10,000,000 in grants to support outstanding research worldwide. We are pleased to present the recipients of our first five grant cycles:
In the 2023 grants cycle, The Misophonia Research Fund awarded six grants to investigators who seek to characterize misophonia and develop new therapeutic strategies. This year’s funded projects join the 26 previously awarded scientific projects dedicated to building a fundamental understanding of misophonia, supporting the development of diagnostic tools, driving the rigor of misophonia clinical studies, and enhancing interdisciplinary science and collaboration.
Using Neurostimulation to Accelerate Change in Misophonia: A Pilot Study
Dr. Andrada Neacsiu, Duke University
Identifying changes in misophonia symptoms in response to an intervention consisting of emotion regulation skills with or without brain neuromodulation.
An Interdisciplinary Study Characterizing Misophonia Across Nations and Across the Lifespan
Dr. Howard Berenbaum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
An assessment of misophonia across cultures aimed at identifying common mechanisms or key cultural differences that drive its development or experience.
Novel Investigations of Brain Mechanisms for Different Triggers in Misophonia
Dr. Phillip Gander, University of Iowa
Examining the specificity of brain responses to misophonia triggers and determining whether responses depend on the types of triggers.
Development of Misophonia and Other Auditory Affective Experiences in Children and Adolescents
Dr. Erin Hannon, University of Nevada Las Vegas
A longitudinal study on the development of misophonia during adolescence and examination of its connection with musicality and other auditory experiences.
Characterizing Attention and Memory Deficits in Misophonic Individuals Following Trigger Exposure
Dr. Mark Huff, University of Southern Mississippi
An examination of how misophonia affects the cognitive processes underlying control of attention and memory.
Cognitive Reappraisal in Reducing Affective, Behavioral, and Psychophysiological Symptoms of Misophonia
Dr. Marta Siepsiak, University of Warsaw
Identifying changes in misophonia symptoms in response to a psychotherapeutic intervention called cognitive reappraisal.
For more information on the work of our Cycle 5 grantees, click here.
In the 2022 grants cycle, The Misophonia Research Fund awarded six grants totaling approximately $2,200,000 over two years for the following research projects. Four grants support research to understand misophonia and develop treatments, and two grants support the development and validation of tools to assess and measure misophonia:
Psychometric Assessment of Misophonia: A Validation Study of Measurement Tools for the Severity of the Disorder
Dr. Silia Vitoratou, King’s College London
This study seeks to evaluate existing misophonia assessments, fortify these tools based on these assessments, and surmise the prevalence of misophonia in a US population using validated and revised tools.
The Balance Between Top-Down and Bottom-Up Attention in Misophonia versus ASD
Dr. Tal Kenet, Massachusetts General Hospital
This study uses advanced neuroimaging techniques to address how the cognitive processes that deal with attention differ across neurotypical, autistic, and misophonic individuals when experiencing various sounds, including misophonic triggers.
Effects of Hearing, Seeing and Imagining Misophonia Triggers: An fMRI Investigation
Dr. Svetlana Shinkareva, University of South Carolina
This study addresses the underlying brain patterns of misophonic reactions by comparing the effects of trigger stimuli, when accompanied by a real or imagined cue, under auditory and/or visual conditions.
Validation of a Misophonia Screener in Pediatric Primary Care
Dr. Adam Lewin, University of South Florida
This study seeks to develop and validate both a screener and diagnostic interview in line with the consensus definition of misophonia for early determination of misophonia in pediatric patients.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) plus Behavioral Intervention for Misophonia
Dr. Michael Twohig, Utah State University
This study seeks to apply a therapeutic technique to managing misophonic reactions through a twelve-session program, administered by a clinician, designed for long-term self-administration and retention.
Characterizing How the Experience of Misophonia is Shaped by Environmental and Internal States
Dr. Blake Butler, University of Western Ontario
This study utilizes a novel virtual environment to map changes in neural activity when recalling memory while triggers are present or absent in environments with varying trigger expectations.
In the 2021 grants cycle, The Misophonia Research Fund approved seven grants totaling approximately $2,200,000 over two years for the following research projects:
A Stakeholder Informed, Large-Scale Study of The Impact of Misophonia on Children and Families
Dr. Andrew Guzick, Baylor College of Medicine
A study identifying primary concerns and research priorities from those affected by misophonia, understanding clinical presentation and associated functional impairments, and evaluating the trajectory of misophonia over time in affected youth.
Behavioral Sensitization Underlying Misophonia And Its Illness Course
Dr. Nicholas Murphy, Baylor College of Medicine
A study examining behavioral sensitization as a biological mechanism underlying misophonia and misophonia severity with the goal of establishing a relationship between misophonia severity and these underlying mechanisms.
Sounds Linked with Events
Dr. Laurie Heller, Carnegie Mellon University
A study investigating the audiological and visual factors that contribute to misophonia symptoms in order to understand the extent to which misophonia depends on the interpretation and distinct acoustic factors of the trigger.
Understanding Why Sounds May Push Our Buttons: Combining Psychoacoustic Tools with Brain Imaging, towards Effective Intervention
Dr. Emily Coffey, Concordia University
A study exploring the neurobiological link between auditory triggers and the negative emotional states seen in misophonia by developing a large, open science database and characterizing behavioral and neurophysiological responses in misophonia.
Modifying Emotional Learning and Memory in Misophonia
Dr. Daniela Schiller, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
A study characterizing the role of associative learning in adults with misophonia with an emphasis on emotional learning and memory, aiming to explore whether associative learning and pharmacological interventions may alleviate misophonic reactions.
Associative Learning in Youth with Misophonia
Dr. Joseph McGuire, Johns Hopkins University
A study evaluating the associative learning processes underlying the development of misophonia through an immersive virtual reality environment with the goal of pinpointing how these processes differ in youth with misophonia.
A Transdiagnostic Investigation of Decreased Sound Tolerance in Adults
Dr. Tiffany Woynaroski, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
A study exploring the boundaries between misophonia and other related conditions categorized as Decreased Sound Tolerance through deep phenotyping and collection of multiple perceptual and physiologic variables.
In the 2020 grants cycle, The Misophonia Research Fund approved seven grants totaling approximately $2,500,000 over two years for the following research projects:
Exploring the Acceptability and Efficacy of a Transdiagnostic Treatment for Misophonia
Dr. Katherine McMahon, Duke University
A study exploring the acceptability, feasibility, and efficacy of the existing Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders as it applies to misophonia, with the goal of developing an evidence-based treatment protocol.
Role of expectations and beliefs in driving brain activity in misophonia
Dr. Sukhbinder Kumar, University of Iowa
A study aiming to examine top-down factors relating to sound and its origin, as well as its role in driving cognitive operations that play a role in misophonic brain activity via two fMRI studies.
Spatiotemporal Characterization of Misophonia Using Multimodal Brain Imaging
Dr. Andreas Keil, University of Florida
A study utilizing multimodal imaging techniques to evaluate the interaction between auditory processing, emotion, and sensory perception in misophonia in support of computational modeling-based predictions regarding the origin of aversive responses characteristic of misophonia.
A Multi-Modal Brain Imaging Study of Misophonia Examining its Audiological and Psychological Aspects
Dr. Fatima Husain, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A study using imaging and behavioral measures to map the neural correlates and audiological and psychological aspects of misophonia, as well as understand misophonia in the context of audiological disorders such as tinnitus and hyperacusis.
Advancing the Characterization and Assessment of Misophonia through Laboratory and Population-based Research
Dr. Laura Dixon, University of Mississippi
A study evaluating the behavioral and physiological basis of misophonia symptomology as well as using a multi-tiered approach to expand the scientific basis of epidemiology, characterization and assessment of misophonia.
Misophonia and High-Level Auditory and Affective Processing in Adults and Children
Dr. Erin Hannon, University of Nevada Las Vegas
A study investigating the possibility that certain characteristics or endophenotypes might make some individuals more likely to acquire misophonia, such as differences in high-level auditory processing.
Profiling Misophonia: From Heightened Sensory Sensitivity to Intolerance of Sounds
Dr. Jamie Ward, University of Sussex
A study utilizing novel tasks and behavioral measures to examine the hypothesis that atypical sensory sensitivity, including cognitive, perceptual and neural pre-requisites, may underlie misophonia and predispose some people to develop misophonia.
In the 2019 grants cycle, The Misophonia Research Fund approved a total of approximately $2,300,000 over two years in funding for the following research projects:
Cross-Sensory Remapping for the Treatment of Misophonia
Dr. Nicolas Davidenko, University of California Santa Cruz
A study to characterize how visual information modifies neural and behavioral responses to averse auditory stimuli and to test whether complementary sensory information can modify the neural representation of a misophonic trigger.
Transdiagnostic Treatment for Misophonia
Dr. Adam Lewin, University of South Florida
A study evaluating whether the Unified Protocols for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Children and Adolescents can be used to treat misophonia in youth (8-16 years old) based on prior success in application to OCD, anxiety, and depression.
Identifying the Optimal Neural Target for Misophonia Interventions
Dr. Andrada Neacsiu, Duke University
A study aiming to understand whether and how misophonia is distinct from other disorders of emotional dysregulation and assess the ability to use repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to non-invasively alter neural activity in individuals experiencing misophonia.
A Comprehensive Psychological, Computational, and Neural Analysis of Misophonia
Dr. Daniela Schiller, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai
A study characterizing misophonia in adults using computational and neural analyses, including a proposal to collect additional, higher resolution data and using machine learning methods to identify key features in the data.
Misophonia in Children: Impact, Co-Morbidities, and Roadmaps to Treatment
Dr. Julia Simner, University of Sussex
A longitudinal study seeking to develop a screening tool for misophonia in children and adolescents; to better understand the impact of misophonia on schooling, thinking, personality and well-being; and to explore misophonia within the wider framework of children’s generalized sensory sensitivities.
Deep Phenotypic Characterization of Misophonia in Children and Adolescents
Dr. Eric Storch, Baylor College of Medicine
A comprehensive approach to understanding how misophonia presents in children and adolescents within the framework of NIMH’s Research Domain Criteria, focusing on the assessment of psychopathology through the underlying processes that contribute to differences.
