When you purchase through links on our site , we may realise an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it form .

Could a seemingly innocent audio like someone chewing white potato vine chips shoot up your meat pace and send your brain into a frenzy as if you were catch in a sprightliness - and - death billet ?

For people who suffer from misophonia , it can . Misophonia is a inscrutable condition characterise by the experience of strong disconfirming emotion , often anger and anxiousness , in reply to some everyday sounds other mass make , such as hum , chew , typing and even catch one’s breath . Although at first glance it may sound like an inauspicious but trivial annoyance , studies so far paint a more serious pic .

Get answers to lifes little mysteries. Subscribe and feel like a kid again.

Don’t crunch potato chips in front of this guy.

" Some citizenry doubt whether it ’s really a upset . They say , ' Well , I get annoyed as well when I go to the movies and someone is corrode Saratoga chip , ' " said Damiaan Denys , professor of psychiatry at the University of Amsterdam . " There ’s one of import departure : These patients really suffer . We have come across divorcement , we ’ve seen people quit their line . " Lack of sentience about the shape has even led to children with misophonia being diagnose with much more terrible disorders like attention - deficit / hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD ) orautism , Denys told Live Science . [ What is the Taos Hum ? ]

Misophonia has been scarcely research and is not yet officially recognized as a psychiatrical or neurological condition . But some psychologist who have realize the intense hurt it causes in their patients are convince it should be taken severely .

" I completely believe it exists , base on the research and based on my interactions with patients , " enunciate Ali Mattu , an adjunct professor in medical psychology at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City . " I ’m just not quite sure what it is . "

Man covering ears

Don’t crunch potato chips in front of this guy.

A brain that’s slightly different

The underlying mechanism of misophonia is not fully known , but scientist suspect it ’s due to the way some masses ’s brainpower process special sounds and react to them .

In a new study published May 17 in the journalScientific Reports , Denys and his colleague monitor the brains of 21 mass with misophonia and 23 hefty participant as they watched telecasting clips of the keep an eye on actions : triggering sounds , like lip smacking ; neutral events , such as a person meditating ; or vulgar scenes from movies .

Only the misophonic clip make a different response between the two groups . When see a telecasting of lip slap or heavy breathing , people with misophonia feel vivid anger and disgust , and their heart rates spiked . Their mental capacity scans showed hyperactivation of thesalience meshwork , a chemical group of mind areas that guide our aid to noticeable thing in our surroundings .

Woman clutching her head in anguish.

The study ’s findings matched those from a study last yr by another team , publish in the journalCurrent Biology . That study found that in people with misophonia , trigger sounds air the salience web into an overdrive and activate psyche areas creditworthy for regulating fear and emotions , as well as forming long - term memories . Using different brain - imaging technique , the researchers found the connections between these brain areas are different and sometimes structurally more robust in people with misophonia than they are in the worldwide populace .

These finding have pass scientists to distrust misophonia is stimulate by a different wiring of the brain , causing the mastermind to perceive particular sounds as highly salient and answer with acute anxiety and distress . In other words , this brain reacts to a manducate sound in a means that ’s more appropriate for responding to a Leo ’s roar . [ break loose Head Syndrome : A Mind - Blowing Sleep Disorder ]

Can a misophonic brain be calmed?

Research into misophonia is so new , the circumstance is not well - defined and there are no standard guidelines for detecting and treat it . " The biggest challenge I have in treating it is that we just do n’t have good criterion for what misophonia is , " Mattu told Live Science . " There is n’t an agreed upon psychiatric definition for it yet .

There ’s a lot of similarity between people who feel misophonia , but also a lot of variety , which perplex our understanding of the condition . " Some of my patientsexperience anxietyin reception to sound . Some composition disgust and others account rage , " Mattu enjoin .

To help patients with misophonia , healer practice a variety of technique , often based on the character of symptom . " What emotion are experienced and the thoughts that come up with those are key to plow this job , " Mattu said .

a photo of a group of people at a cocktail party

Those who experience care and anxiety may respond to exposure - ground handling , in which therapist help them discover to manage their symptoms while exposing them to set off sounds . In contrast , patients who experience ire learn to manage their distraint through , for lesson , distraction orrelaxation techniques . The most efficient therapy so far looks like cognitive behavioural therapy , in which therapists assist people change the way they cerebrate about these place and learn to careen their care , Denys say .

Originally published onLive skill .

an illustration of sound waves traveling to an ear

Shot of a cheerful young man holding his son and ticking him while being seated on a couch at home.

a woman yawns at her desk

a doctor talks to a patient

A bunch of skulls.

child holding up a lost tooth

Article image

An activity map created by multi-electrode arrays shows how the mini lab brain is active (colored parts) at times and silent (black parts) at other times.

A synapse where a signal travels from one neuron to the next.

Researchers discovered a new organ sitting below the outer layer of the skin. The organ is made up of nerves (blue) and sensory glia cells (red and green).

An image comparing the relative sizes of our solar system�s known dwarf planets, including the newly discovered 2017 OF201

an illustration showing a large disk of material around a star

a person holds a GLP-1 injector

A man with light skin and dark hair and beard leans back in a wooden boat, rowing with oars into the sea

an MRI scan of a brain

A photograph of two of Colossal�s genetically engineered wolves as pups.

A blue and gold statuette of a goat stands on its hind legs behind a gold bush