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CAN SEEMINGLY INNOCENT SOUNDS, LIKE SOMEONE CHEWING POTATO CHIPS, SHOOT UP YOUR HEART RATE AND SEND YOUR BRAIN INTO A FRENZY? A BRAIN THAT’S SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT
FOR PEOPLE WHO suffer from misophonia, it can. Misophonia is a mysterious condition characterised by the experience of strong negative emotions, often anger and anxiety, in response to some everyday sounds other people make – humming, chewing, typing and even breathing. Although at first glance it may sound like an unfortunate but trivial annoyance, studies so far paint a more serious picture.
“Some people doubt whether it’s really a disorder,” said Damiaan Denys, professor of psychiatry at the University of Amsterdam. “[But] these patients really suffer. We have seen divorces, we’ve seen people quitting their jobs.” Lack of awareness about the condition has even led to children with misophonia being diagnosed with more severe disorders like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism.
Misophonia has been scarcely researched and is not yet formally recognised as a psychiatric or neurological condition. But some psychologists who have seen the intense distress it causes in their patients are convinced it should be taken seriously. The underlying mechanism of misophonia is not fully known, but scientists suspect it’s caused by the way some people’s brains process particular sounds and react to them. In a new study published May 2019 in the journal Scientific Reports, Denys and his colleagues monitored the brains of 21 people with misophonia and 23 healthy participants as they watched video clips of the following actions: triggering sounds, like lip smacking; neutral events, such as a person meditating; or gross scenes from movies.
People with misophonia felt intense anger and disgust during the misophonic clips, and their heart rates spiked. Their brain scans showed hyperactivation of the salience network – a group of brain areas that direct our attention to noticeable things in our surroundings.
Another study from 2018 published in the journal Current Biology found that in people with misophonia, trigger sounds send the salience network into an overdrive and activate brain areas responsible for regulating fear and emotions, as well as forming long-term memories. Using different brain-imaging techniques, 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 general public.
CAN A MISOPHONIC BRAIN BE CALMED?
Research into misophonia is so new, the condition is not well-defined and there are no standard guidelines for detecting and treating it. To help patients with misophonia, therapists use a variety of techniques, often based on the type of symptoms.
Those who experience fear and anxiety may respond to exposure-based treatments, in which therapists help them learn to manage their symptoms while exposing them to trigger sounds. In contrast, patients who experience anger learn to manage their distress through, for example, distraction or relaxation techniques. The most effective therapy so far appears to be cognitive behavioural therapy, in which therapists help people change the way they think about these situations and learn to shift their attention.