Effects of Trigger Stimuli on Cognitive Performance in Misophonia

Taea F. Ho, Western University

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to validate the psychometric properties of the English-translated MisoQuest by investigating whether scores on the MisoQuest in English-speaking participants can predict their cognitive performance in the presence of trigger sounds. The experiment involved analyzing the relationship between participants’ misophonia symptom severity measured by the MisoQuest scores, and their cognitive performance which was depicted by the number of correct answers on the reading comprehension task under silent, aversive, and trigger sound conditions. In each sound condition, a Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between MisoQuest scores and reading comprehension scores. A main finding of this study revealed that as the severity of misophonia symptoms worsened, participants experienced greater cognitive impairments in trigger sound conditions. When the relationship between silent and trigger sound conditions was compared, the Pearson correlation revealed a significant positive relationship between MisoQuest scores and the difference in comprehension scores. This indicates that trigger sounds specifically impacted cognitive performance in participants with greater MisoQuest scores. The study successfully provided evidence of efficacy, internal consistency, and reliability of the MisoQuest as participants’ MisoQuest scores were able to predict trigger-related cognitive impairments.