By Nina Tran
Imagine you are studying at the library. You’ve forgotten your earphones at home, but since you’re in a fairly quiet area, there is only the sound of pages rustling and pencils scratching. Suddenly, the sound of someone biting into a crisp apple pierces the air. Your skin crawls. You become hyper-aware of the cacophony of the chewing. Even though it isn’t particularly loud, you feel irrationally furious. It is nearly impossible now to concentrate on your own work. Eventually, the chewing stops, and you feel relieved yet simultaneously embarrassed for getting so worked up. Everyone else around you doesn’t appear to be bothered. So, what just happened to you?
Few are aware of the condition known as misophonia, which literally translates to “hatred of sound.” The term was first mentioned in a 2000 publication by audiologists Pawel and Margaret Jastreboff to describe human aversion to specific sounds. Stimuli found to be triggering potentially include a range of repetitive sounds such as chewing, tapping, and, even, breathing.
These sounds “provoke intense emotional experiences and autonomic arousal within an individual.” In essence, the fight-or-flight response is inappropriately activated, and those affected experience either greater levels of aggression or desire to escape. This effect can compromise an some people’s ability to function in social environments and can, ultimately, affect their mental health. Scientists have yet to develop a standard of diagnosis for this condition as research has been relatively sparse. Diagnosis is made more difficult since other anxiety disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, have many similarities.
Image Source: Guido Mieth
What causes misophonia? In one of their recent articles, Misophonia and Its Treatment, the Jastreboffs suggest that it may primarily be due to “an enhanced functional connection between the auditory and the limbic and autonomic nervous systems.” A publication for the journal Neurology Today further explores this idea in a study of subjects with misophonia. The study design involved the acquisition of both functional and structural MRI data from both the aforementioned subjects and a control group. With unpleasant sounds like crying or screaming, brain scans showed similar results for misophonics and the control groups. The primary difference lied in their observed responses to misophonic triggers. When exposed to auditory cues such as chewing and breathing, misophonic subjects experienced a specific increase in activity in the anterior insular cortex (AIC), a region of the brain associated with the regulation of emotion. This cranial response occurred alongside a measured increase in heart rate and release of sweat. Subjects with misophonia also had a shared structural abnormality: neurons in the AIC were myelinated to a greater degree than those of the control group. The greater degree of myelination possibly transmits those sensations quicker and more effectively, to the dismay of those with misophonia. As this is still a new subject of psychiatric research, the significance of these findings is still being studied.
In the United States, there are clinics that specialize in treating misophonia. Possible treatment includes both cognitive behavioral therapy and special hearing aids that assist in negating auditory distractions. However, until there is more research, the development of effective treatments has been put on hold. For more information, you can contact the non-profit organization Misophonia Association . Misophonia is a disorder that deserves more recognition, for it likely affects a greater portion of the population than you might expect.
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