For my final year dissertation i am conducting a study on whether or not Progressive Muscle relaxation (PMR) can change physical and emotional responses towards aversive sounds. The purpose of this study is primarily to explore whether PMR may be effective as a treatment/coping mechanism for misophonia. Because of this i have framed my introduction to focus heavily on misophonia (ie. what is it, why it needs treating, current treatment and possible mechanisms). However for my study i used a neurotypical population. My reasons for doing this include:

- misophonia and general aversive sound processing share common mechanisms

- there is suggestion that misophonia is just an extreme response to general aversion

- PMR has never been tested to change perceptions towards aversive sound stimuli alone

- if unsuccessful misophonics could simply be exposed to the stimuli which may result in symptoms worsening = ethical issues

- allow to test on a large number of people

- there is also no validated measures for measuring misophonic symptoms

- lack of awareness of condition and its prevalence in general population makes recruitment extremely hard

- there is also no validated measures for measuring misophonic symptoms had of misophpnics

are these reasons valid enough for why i have chosen to study the general population instead of misophonics when exploring this treatment and am i ok to keep misophonia as the central purpose for conducting this study as well it being the main focus of my introduction?

Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated