Body

full detail

In their 2025 NIRS study, Haigh aimed to assess overlap between visual and auditory discomfort, investigate whether auditory discomfort elicits cortical hyper-responsivity using NIRS, and determine whether discomfort mechanisms are shared across modalities. To do this, they conducted an online survey measuring auditory sensitivity (hyperacusis, misophonia, and functional hearing) alongside visual pattern glare, and a laboratory NIRS study comparing haemodynamic responses to 2 Hz and 16 Hz amplitude-modulated 1 kHz tones over TP7/TP8. All auditory measures significantly correlated with pattern glare (hyperacusis rs = .29; FHQ rs = .25; misophonia rs = .11), with hyperacusis and FHQ showing stronger associations than misophonia, and the 16 Hz (uncomfortable) tone eliciting larger and slower oxyhemoglobin responses than the 2 Hz tone, with no significant amplitude differences in deoxyhemoglobin and only a trend-level delay in its timing. From these findings, the authors concluded that visually sensitive individuals are more likely to report hyperacusis and poor functional hearing than misophonia, supporting a shared hyperexcitable cortical mechanism underlying cross-modal sensitivity, suggesting that auditory discomfort may reflect similar metabolic overload processes as visual discomfort, that pain-focused and emotion-focused sensitivities may form distinct clusters, and that dissociations between peak latency and amplitude indicate separable components of auditory discomfort. (Haigh et al., 2025)

reduced description

In their 2025 study, Haigh examined whether visual and auditory discomfort overlap and whether auditory discomfort reflects cortical hyper-responsivity. An online survey showed that pattern glare was significantly associated with hyperacusis and functional hearing more strongly than misophonia, and a NIRS study found that an uncomfortable 16 Hz tone elicited larger and slower oxyhemoglobin responses than a 2 Hz tone, with no significant deoxyhemoglobin amplitude differences. The authors concluded that visually sensitive individuals are more likely to report pain-related auditory sensitivity, supporting a shared hyperexcitable cortical mechanism across modalities. They further suggest that pain-focused and emotion-focused sensitivities may form distinct clusters and that peak amplitude and latency reflect separable components of auditory discomfort. (Haigh et al., 2025)