Dr Hashir Aazh interviews Professor Fatima Husain from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, about her upcoming presentation at the 6th International Conference on Hyperacusis and Misophonia which is planned for Friday-Saturday 1-2 July 2022 at Birkbeck College, University of London, London, United Kingdom.
Professor Husain completed her PhD in Cognitive and Neural Systems at Boston University in 1999. Before joining the Department of Speech and Hearing Science in 2008, she was a postdoctoral fellow and research fellow with the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Institutes of Health. Her research on hearing and cognition and associated disorders such as hearing loss, tinnitus, hyperacusis and misophonia uses a combination of computational modelling, brain imaging experiments, and behavioural studies. Professor Husain is the director of the Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, part-time faculty at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and faculty in the Neuroscience Program. She is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the American Tinnitus Association, standing member of the Sensory Systems & Communication Disorders review committee of the US Department of Veteran Affairs and Editor of the American Journal of Audiology.
Professor Husain’s talk focuses on her study on the prevalence and characteristics of tinnitus, hyperacusis and misophonia in a college-age population in the United States. Professor Husain and her colleagues examined the prevalence of misophonia in a collegiate population as well explored links between misophonia and tinnitus, hearing loss, hyperacusis and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The estimated prevalence of misophonia is about 20%, which agrees with most of the currently published research examining misophonia symptoms in collegiate populations. Results of data analysis indicate that some type of relationship exists between the occurrence of hyperacusis, misophonia severity, and possibly tinnitus.
