Do you get the jitters when you hear someone else enjoy a meal or snack? You are by no means the only one with misophonia, in other words: an aversion to chewing noises. Researchers have now also discovered why some find all that smacking unbearable.
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Scientists at Newcastle University in the UK have investigated why everyday sounds such as chewing, drinking and breathing cause a short circuit in the brain in some. Brain scans show that people with misophonia in their gray matter have a stronger connection between the part that processes sound and the part that controls the mouth and throat.
When volunteers with misophonia in the study heard a trigger sound, the scans showed that the brain region involved in the mouth and throat movement was overactive compared to a control group that did not have the condition. “The study suggests that the trigger sound activates the motor area in people with misophonia, even though the person listens only to the sound,” said lead researcher Sukhbinder Kumar, a university neuroscientist. “They get the feeling that the sounds are penetrating them.”
To be more precise, Kumar and his and his colleagues believe that trigger sounds activate the brain’s so-called mirror neuron system. These are neurons that are activated when you perceive what someone else is doing, in the same place in the brain as the person performing the action.
The research results, published in the journal Journal of Neuroscience,could be a first step towards effective therapies to address misophonia. After all, Kumar states that the mirror neuron system can be trained. In theory, people should be able to break the link between a particular sound that drives them crazy and the disturbing effects they experience.
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