If you’ve ever had the urge to lash out at a coworker for chewing loudly, science is on your side.
Researchers from the UK learned what happens in the brains of those who get an “excessive” emotional response to the sounds of eating or breathing. The condition, known as “Misophonia,” causes certain people to get downright furious when they hear these sounds, according to the study published in Current Biology.
The researchers studied people who have an intense reaction to various “trigger” sounds, like loud breathing, munching and slurping. Those with Misophonia experience significantly more action in the part of their brain that joins senses with emotion.
“They are going into overdrive when they hear these sounds, but the activity was specific to the trigger sounds not the other two sounds,” Sukhbinder Kumar, from Newcastle University, said to BBC News.
Kumar added that the reaction isn’t mere annoyance — as many might feel when they hear the sound of nails on a chalkboard. Those with Misophonia practically go into Hulk mode when they hear their “trigger” sounds.
“The reaction is anger mostly, it’s not disgust, the dominating emotion is the anger – it looks like a normal response, but then it is going into overdrive.”
One patient with the condition told BBC News that she gets a “fight or flight” response when she hears people breathing, eating, or rustling.
“Anyone eating crisps is always going to set me off, the rustle of the packet is enough to start a reaction,” said patient Olana Tansley-Hancock, 29. “I spent a long time avoiding places like the cinema. I’d have to move carriages seven or eight times on 30-minute train journeys, and I left a job after three months as I spent more time crying and having panic attacks than working.”
The researchers still don’t know how common it is, and there’s no way of diagnosing it. But now that they know a little more about what’s happening in the brains of those with the condition, scientists hope they can find new treatments.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
