Research Reveals Why Some Find the Sound of Others Eating So Irritating (theguardian.com) 64
Scientists have shed light on why everyday sounds such as chewing, drinking and breathing can be so maddening to some people that it drives them to despair. From a report: Now, brain scans performed by researchers at Newcastle University have revealed that people with misophonia have stronger connectivity between the part of the brain that processes sounds and the part of the so-called premotor cortex which handles mouth and throat muscle movements. When people with misophonia were played a "trigger sound," the scans showed that the brain region involved in mouth and throat movement was overactivated compared with a control group of volunteers who did not have the condition.
"What we are suggesting is that in misophonia the trigger sound activates the motor area even though the person is only listening to the sound," said Dr Sukhbinder Kumar, a neuroscientist at Newcastle University. "It makes them feel like the sounds are intruding into them." Kumar and his colleagues believe that trigger sounds activate what is called the brain's mirror neuron system. Mirror neurons are thought to fire when a person performs an action, but also when they see others make particular movements.
"What we are suggesting is that in misophonia the trigger sound activates the motor area even though the person is only listening to the sound," said Dr Sukhbinder Kumar, a neuroscientist at Newcastle University. "It makes them feel like the sounds are intruding into them." Kumar and his colleagues believe that trigger sounds activate what is called the brain's mirror neuron system. Mirror neurons are thought to fire when a person performs an action, but also when they see others make particular movements.
That's Funny (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: That's Funny (Score:2)
*sniff**sniff*
"Brimstone, we must be getting close"
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The sound is merely a warning of what is soon to come.
I know their pain.
So does my ex.
Re: That's Funny (Score:2)
I have another interpretation (Score:5, Funny)
Re: I have another interpretation (Score:2)
You aren't kidding, they should test people listening to nails on a chalkboard too, or any other annoying sound that makes you want to scream.
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People with Attention Deficit Disorder can become distracted by such sounds making it even more difficult to focus on their work.
Likewise people Autism Spectrum Disorder can become overstimulated by certain sounds, triggering whatever response.
Both can occur in the same individual and at the same time as well.
Just because contemporary science put the label "misophonia" o
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I'm more inclined to not accept this because snowflakes like to abuse shit like this that is very hard to validate with black-and-white evidence.
Okay I see where you're coming from. I have seen how self diagnosis became the trend. I'm generally wary of the whole business of questionnaire diagnostics because they're easy to game in order to get attention, drugs, and internet points with the mental-illness squad.
This neurological study using measurements is at least somewhat interesting to me.
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Says the guy who makes Cookie Monster sound like Miss Manners at the dinner table.
It's never bothered me except... (Score:2)
This has never bothered me except the usual cows who chew with their mouths open and talk; fish cooked in microwaves OTOH deserve the death penalty.
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had that happen a long time ago with a co-worker. The other co-workers just started whistling badly, off-tune as well and it stopped.
Re: It's never bothered me except... (Score:2)
Re: It's never bothered me except... (Score:2)
Earplugs (Score:1)
Problem solved. Next bullshit problem..
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I used to work at Hobart Corp. in the sheet metal shop and had to wear earplugs for the whole 12 hour shift. I survived to tell the tale.
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Re: Earplugs (Score:2)
Simple explanation (Score:1)
"I'm a little bitch who bases his entire personality around a word I just learned"
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I was once suspended from school for hitting someone for chewing with her mouth open, this was in high school, if you still chew with your mouth open at that age your parents should be checked for drugs.
Re: Simple explanation (Score:1)
If you hit people at school you should be sent home.
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Of course he hit a girl. Bet he wouldn't hit a guy.
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Glad you took it upon yourself to dole out some vigilante justice.
Judge Dredd: I never broke the Law! I AM THE LAW!!
Re: Simple explanation (Score:2)
My wife 100% has this (Score:4, Interesting)
She will chew gum with her mouth open all day but then explode into rage at the sound of someone else quietly swallowing or their jaw making a clicking sound.
I, on the other hand, have always been extremely self conscious about making noises while eating. Along with a lifetime of self esteem issues. So after a decade of being told I chew like a cow, I now avoid family dining at all costs. Yet another reason my marriage is circling the drain.
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Re: My wife 100% has this (Score:2)
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Go to a therapist, and a marriage therapist.
There is no reason you should have to suffer or lose your marriage.
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Tried all that already. It's time for an attorney. Or an exorcist.
Yesterday's Kurzgesagt episode [youtube.com] puts it into perspective. Life is too short to waste it on a toxic relationship.
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My daughter has this and the solution was to play music during all meals. Part of her brain latches on to the music and can ignore the chewing sounds.
Disgust (Score:3)
This explains the “how”, but not really the “why”.
Perhaps this sensitivity is to do with a heightened aversion to things that, taken to extreme, cause a pretty natural “disgust reflex”?
I mean that in the sense of wanting to avoid disease. Something highly likely to have strong evolutionary pressure.
Sure, chewing with the occasional smacking noise is not much to fuss about. But the “worst case” of this behaviour is horking down handfuls of almost-fermenting snouts and entrails. Off a filthy floor. With your snot-encrusted mouth wide open. Belching up acidic reflux and struggling to stand on the predigested mastications dripping onto the floor beneath you. All the while trying to whistle the opening bars of a Bette Midler song through a maelstrom of hair and mucus and bile.
I’d wager this is the image most people have in their heads who are sensitive to such noises.
Re: Disgust (Score:1)
Mimicry (Score:1)
After reading the journal article, I'm thinking that this is a remnant of mimicry.
As a mild sufferer of misophonia, I do have the annoying habit of aping things as well - almost completely reflexive.
So, it's not like avoiding sounds, but the brains wiring of repeating them.
I also don't remember being so adversely affected when I was young, but it's gotten worse as I age.
So - the next study should be to look at the wiring of infants. My thesis is that everyone gas this mimicry wiring and then most grow out
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Perhaps this sensitivity is to do with a heightened aversion to things that, taken to extreme, cause a pretty natural “disgust reflex”?
Maybe a little, but for me (I have misophonia), it's mostly the intrusion into my thoughts. Like, I can't hear someone chewing (especially fucking carrots or something) and prevent myself from imagining the entire multisensory visceral process. No matter how hard I try, I can't NOT think about *your* tongue flicking around half-chopped up bits of carrot, covered in gooey saliva, I can't NOT feel the bits of carrot getting stuck in *your* teeth etc...
Even though I might enjoy eating a carrot myself, if you e
Brandish That Diagnosis (Score:1)
One thing that has really come into vogue that didn't used to be is that people spend a lot more time getting diagnosed, and then wear their diagnosis around like a badge.
You can carry it for a lifetime and sometimes even get pills for it!
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Neural overflow needs to be studied more. (Score:1)
It's the reason you laugh when you feel like cring so much it overwhelms you, and cry from laughter when it is very funny, due to the brain regions being right next to each other.
It is the reason why your feet tingle during sexual arousal and are erogenous zones for many people, due to those brajn centers being very close too.
And most importantly, it is why you start hating everything resembing that thing that was merely a bystander when your dad beat you, even though that thing itseld was not the problem.
O
Re: Neural overflow needs to be studied more. (Score:2)
Everyone has a rythm. (Score:2)
It's also a convenient form of gaslighting (Score:3)
No pun intended. How obnoxious is it when someone criticizes something that you do naturally and you can't confirm what their complaining about. "You chew too loudly!" Yeah, um, get a dB meter and we'll look at it scientifically (that, fyi, is how science is done). Or how about this gem: "You walk funny."
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Some people do chew too loudly. Or breathe too loudly.
Some people have a direct unwanted reaction to that.
Who is at fault? Who cares. There is an issue. It doesn't fucking matter when you agree or not, there is still an issue.
So work to address it. Is that so hard?
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But WHO has to address the issue? The chewer? Perhaps the person with sensitive hearing should buy some earplugs. There are two sides to that coin.
The sound of people thinking .. (Score:1)
The researchers didn't note that... (Score:2)
"What we are suggesting is that in misophonia the trigger sound activates the motor area even though the person is only listening to the sound, it makes them feel like the sounds are intruding into them." as they noisily chowed down on pho, slurping greedily at the last bits of each noodle, then belching and picking their teeth with fish bones whilst loudly pulling air through pursed lips in an effort to vacuum the remaining bits from between their teeth.
Mukbang'ers won't like this. (Score:1)
I was never a fan of that vloging/streaming subculture. It is a very profitable one.
In any event: I can now fully understand my aversion towards said content creators.
I had no idea (Score:1)