Making noise while eating can annoy those around you, at least some members. These may be suffering from misophonia. Recently, British researchers conducted a study proving a stronger connection between the region of the brain processing sound and that controlling the mouth and throat in people suffering from this disorder.
First, remember that misophonia is a rarely diagnosed, although very common, neuropsychological disorder. For the people concerned, the slightest noise emanating from others very quickly becomes a source of auditory frustration . It can be chewing food, typing keys on a keyboard or ringing telephone bells. As more and more studies focus on misophonia, recent work has caught the eye. A team from the University of Newcastle (UK) has claimed to have discovered the reasons why certain everyday sounds can be very disturbing for some people.
Their study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience on May 21, 2021, evokes a connection between the area of the brain responsible for processing sounds and a part of the premotor cortex . However, the latter manages the movements of the muscles of the mouth and throat. According to this work, this connection would be stronger in individuals with misophonia.
No less than 37 volunteers People with misophonia (plus a control group) participated in tests by listening to trigger sounds, such as eating, chewing or breathing noises. During these same tests, the researchers performed functional brain MRIs on the participants. According to the results, misophone people had an over-activation of the brain area involved in the management of the movements of the mouth and throat.
For Dr. Sukhbinder Kumar, lead author of the study, the trigger sound activates the motor area of the brain in misophonia. Scientists believe that the phenomenon may have its origin in the mirror neurons of the brain . These activate when a person performs a specific action or sees other people performing it. However, activation of the mirror neuron system by these sounds never prompted misophone people to chew or swallow involuntarily. On the other hand, scientists believe that this could very well happen. Some misophone people could imitate the sounds in question. This would be to control the sensations felt or find some solace.
Dr. Sukhbinder Kumar believes this work can pave the way for more effective therapies against misophonia. It would then be a question of targeting the regions of the brain responsible for movement rather than attacking sounds. The interested party also indicates that the mirror neurons could also be the subject of a kind of training. The goal ? Overcome the link between a sound and the effects that patients may experience.
