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Misophonia: Scientists Crack Why Eating Sounds Can Make People Angry (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BBC: Why some people become enraged by sounds such as eating or breathing has been explained by brain scan studies. The condition, misophonia, is far more than simply disliking noises such as nails being scraped down a blackboard. UK scientists have shown some people's brains become hardwired to produce an "excessive" emotional response. Olana developed the condition when she was eight years old. Her trigger sounds include breathing, eating and rustling noises. Scientists, including Olana, at multiple centers in the UK scanned the brains of 20 misophonic people and 22 people without the condition. They were played a range of noises while they were in the MRI machine, including: neutral sounds such as rain; generally unpleasant sounds such as screaming; people's trigger sounds. The results, published in the journal Current Biology, revealed the part of the brain that joins our senses with our emotions -- the anterior insular cortex -- was overly active in misophonia. And it was wired up and connected to other parts of the brain differently in those with misophonia. Dr Sukhbinder Kumar, from Newcastle University, told BBC News: "They are going into overdrive when they hear these sounds, but the activity was specific to the trigger sounds not the other two sounds. The reaction is anger mostly, it's not disgust, the dominating emotion is the anger -- it looks like a normal response, but then it is going into overdrive." There are no treatments, but Olana has developed coping mechanisms such as using ear plugs. It is still not clear how common the disorder is, as there is no clear way of diagnosing it and it was only recently discovered. Ultimately, the researchers hope, understanding the difference in the misophonic brain will lead to new treatments. One idea is that low levels of targeted electricity passed through the skull, which is known to adjust brain function, could help.
This is only a test.
Don't worry, I'm just hungry a bit, I hear you eating and smell you eating and you're not offering me a bite, so I'm going to growl, claw you to death and steal your food, step away and eat it. Then I'll pee on every tree around and find a sex partner or something remotely like it.
Sounds rather like the opposite of ASMR, which produces non-intuitive positive sensations and emotions in response to similar sounds, in susceptible individuals.
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
Fingernails on a chalkboard, screaming/yelling, etc. - most of these sounds don't really upset me. What does tick me off is the sound of gulping/swallowing. I don't make these noises, but too many of you uncultured pigs do, and I've been keeping a list...
Chaos maximizes locally around me.
Now that they've identified the part of the brain that causes this irrational response, doctors can simply cauterise it so the rest of us can carry on munching, crunching and slurping like normal humans. After all, no-one was going to make allowances for Albert J. Pfister
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
I was having a discussion with someone the other day (who you very well might be able to dox since he was one of the primary patients for the Canadian study on this, with one of the worse cases of Misophonia known.)
It appears to run in my own family along the male line, ranging from eating noises (my father) to a variety of vocal triggers mostly limited to my immediate family (most likely picked up when I was little during the period I spent the most time around them.)
While mine and my father's are controllable (although having triggered sessions of physical conflict between us!) the friend mentioned above have a broader range of noises that caused this effect in him, to the point of causing PTSD from people torturing him with the sounds.
Just because something isn't a big deal for you doesn't mean it isn't a hugely debilitating disease for other people. Sometimes there are available means to limit or mitigate the effects of them, but without focusing research on them the problem won't be better understood, and may result in people who really don't deserve it having social, legal, personal, etc problems because their condition isn't discernable as a debilitating neurological disorder. And the more of these disorders we understand, the better will we be able to understand our genes, our minds, and other impulses throughout our body. Narrowminded atiitudes like yours are what have been holding back ventures into science and technologies that 'obviously have no merit'.
I get furious just when eating. (This tendency is well-constrained by a vanishing tradition called 'table manners'). My theory (watch wildlife) is that creatures are most vulnerable while preoccupied with eating/drinking, so paranoia and watchfulness naturally rises then. If so, objecting to others audibly too close alongside is probably a simple displacement of an instinctive trait.
Another misleading headline. They didn't crack anything. Was there seriously anyone who doubted for one millisecond that that feeling was not somewhere in the brain? Of course it bloody is. The scans didn't reveal anything except a location that shows more activity when the condition occurs, and –suprise, surprise– it's an area known for precisely this.
But did they discover what sets up this association? No. Why these people experience it so strongly? Neither. So no cracking, just "located the area", and even that's surrounded by uncertainty given the experimental conditions.
I wish they would all just stop
That comes under the category of random non-periodic noise. I once had an office cubicle next to a fire door. Anytime someone went in or out of that door, it would slam loudly. Towards lunchtime it would slam every 10 seconds as people went out and came back in again.
It does warrant research. Misophonia can be a life wrecker. Think instant fight or flight response when a person hears a certain sound.
What bothers the shit out of me is the one guy a cubicle over that never ceases to have a mouth full of food smacking away while talking on the phone. I can't stand that smug-sounding, loud mumbling. And 9 times out of 10, that food is, of course, sardines or tunafish (of course).
Thats 10/10 dagnabbit
Gently reply
Been using over-the-ear headphones at work listening to pink noise for the last ~10 years, which works pretty well to block out the sounds of people typing, coughing, grunting, breathing, sighing, walking, playing music, and generally existing.
I would give up everything I own to be able to wipe out my excessively angry reactions to most sounds.
"...break-up more households than infidelity."
Why is it good to close your mouth when you eat?
1. You won't spray all over everyone and everything while you masticate.
2. More food makes it into your gut, so you're less of a wasteful slob in an otherwise hugely wasteful age.
3. People won't have to raise their voices to have a conversation over your meat-flapping noises.
4. You won't announce your gastronomic preoccupation to predators.
The summary says: "There are no treatments". That is quite strange, since last year I've seen news reports that said treatment for this exact problem was possible and often quite effective. As I remember, it was basically psychological training to associate the infuriating sounds with a non-infuriating thought. For example: if the thought of a rabbit eating a carrot does not anger the patient, then whenever he feels a surge of anger from hearing a nearby person eating an apple, he is to think of the harmless rabbit until the flash of anger has subsided. Probably easier said than done, but still, actual patients were saying it worked pretty well for them.
Now all we have to do is to interpret this discovery. I think there are two socially sensible options you can choose from:
1) Manners are a form of insanity. If you don't like people smacking during lunch it's your own fault.
2) Manners are a form of insanity. If you smack while eating you are hurting mentally ill people and should be ashamed of yourself.
Happy voting!
If eating sounds make you angry, don't eat sounds!
Some people just take synesthesia too far.
Brain is one of the most complex organs we have, we have not fully understood many deep functions and mechanisms of it. And suddenly you want to pump electrons across this organ which seems to be mostly working on electro-chemistry?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I wonder if I have this or something like it. I'm definitely sensitive to the sounds of people eating. The personal hell would probably include someone eating really crispy potato chips with their mouth open, licking and smacking their lips. It makes me unjustifiably angry and frustrated. I know my emotional reaction to it isn't proportional to the offense, but it makes me temporarily hate the person who's eating.
I have another weird thing, and I wonder if that might be connected. I wouldn't normally connect it, but if they're saying it's due to a weird response in the brain to sound, maybe it is? Basically, really loud music makes me sleepy. Like, I've gone to punk shows where the music is extremely loud and somewhat grating, and I feel an immediate need to go to sleep. If there's a comfortable place to sit, I might just drift off. As soon as I get out into an environment that's quieter, my energy returns. I'm not sure I noticed it until someone else pointed it out. I've thought that maybe it's like my brain gets overloaded and says, "Nope, this is too much. I'm shutting down."
So now I'm just wondering, maybe I have a generalized thing where my brain is responding strangely to auditory stimuli.
Bose QC25.
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...that this condition is being studied at all. I've had this for as long as I can remember; my sister has it too. Trying to rationalize it away by telling yourself "this response is completely irrational and is all in your head" does nothing to help. When we were kids, family meals were fraught with negative emotion. The table was a cold war between our parents on either end and the only sounds were of people eating. I still wonder if that experience was a contributor or a coincidence.
I agree. Eating in public comes from a position of privilege. It's no surprise that restaurants are usually filled with white people whose access should be limited. Restaurant patrons should be AT LEAST 25% black, 10% lesbian, 48.5% Eskimo. The whites can have what's left.
You don't have a Church's Chicken in your neighborhood, do you?
Finally this problem gets some recognition.
Indeed. It would be good if we could find a cure for or way to prevent this kind of sickness in the head. It's clearly a big problem for those afflicted, so eradicating it would be beneficial to both the sufferers and everyone else. A win/win.
these damn loud eating noises, some people make noises like fucking animals
Whether it's eating or animals copulating, there will be repeated insertions of objects into moist orifices, so it seems natural that the sounds may be reminiscent.
I wonder if this was as prevalent when people used to die of things like ingrown toenails?
Oh, how I hate the sound of ingrown toenails!
i hate the noises of knives cutting into vegetation, always have. hate it 10 times more when some artsy chef is doing it to impress some customers to agree to a bill. am not saying im a sun gazer who persecutes vegan peoples, but actually hate the dramatization vibes and not the actualcutting itself. Mainly because in the Office of Armiger we present ourselves as ethically as possible. I do say that the Ministry of funny Walks is in good tastes.
Have a good day sir.
You have a coping mechanism in the form of attributing malice where none exists. Ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away. And finally, anything that helps us understand brain functions and pathologies is worth study.
Typical America. Everything has a pill. ...or Americans could simply not act like pigs and dont eat with your damn mouths open. Oh wait that requires people to actually do something. How stupid of me.
Sure you could treat it as an illness and electrocute the brains of anyone that gets pissed off by the sound of others eating loudly... (What next... electrocute the brains of anyone who doesn't agree with your musical taste?).
If you're going to announce to all the sabertooths that there are tasty humans grazing over here, go do it over there!
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I'm 100% unimpressed by the fact that either no one took the time to teach such folk manners, or that having been taught, they failed to integrate these basic socializations. While it may be polite to slurp in China, it isn't most other places. Consequently, it's not okay to slurp here, just because it's okay to slurp in China.
People can certainly chew with their mouths open, talk as loudly as they want, mumble, hold their tableware like a monkey with a broken wrist, face-dive into their dishes while eating, drool, snort, ignore personal grooming, blow their nose at the table, bang their tea/coffee cup with their spoon, fail to hold doors for others, fail to keep appointments, never say thank you, start their sentences with "me and...", fail to show up when they said they would, slurp their drinks and soups, dive into their cellphones at meals, drive down the street with their windows down and their audio maxed out, cut in line...
But I feel no obligation to respect or forgive them for any of it, or subject myself to their company, or keep them on as an employee.
There's nothing wrong with any of these things that some (very) basic socialization wouldn't cure. I consider my ostracization of adults exhibiting these characteristics to be nothing less than my social duty.
TLDR: It is incumbent on us to learn basic manners and consideration; also, being moderately irritated by inconsiderate social behavior isn't a syndrome. It's evidence of being civilized.
Raging at such things is something else again.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
But how do you eat sounds?
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Macdonalds has a farm, McDonalds is a fast-food chain.
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I get irritated by these noises, but I just tend to think that if I am hearing noises I shouldn't be hearing, because people are capable of breathing and eating quietly in most cases, it's because someone is trying to bug me by monopolizing my attention.
That might happen sometimes, but most of the time they just don't care about you. Also, it's ableist (yeah, I snicker too, but hold on) to assume that people are capable of breathing and eating quietly. I have allergies and asthma. Most of the time, I am capable of breathing and eating quietly, but sometimes I am not. Even so, I do feel that people have a responsibility to engage as much personal restraint as possible. Debilitation is not an excuse to just throw up your hands and say fuck it. Do what you can. Then, when someone complains you're not doing more, tell them where they can go and what they can do when they get there.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
n/t
I wish people like you and me could have a whole state to ourselves, like the Mormons.
Please let them know what you think about this disorder.
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ion/staff...
Being unable to ignore them and move on is the disorder.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
It depends on whether you think understanding how your subjective experience arises in your brain is worth studying. That's the point of the study; it was already established that people like you exist, the question is why are you that way?
That said, this isn't necessarily an answer as to why you are that way. It's more a matter of "how" than "why".
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Well, I think the people who can't control their sloppy eating sounds have the disorder.
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Ugh. I've had the misfortune of dating a couple of people like this. I don't think this is an actual disorder. They're ALWAYS abusing some kind of upper daily (e.g. ritalin, drinking 15 cups of coffee a day). Tell their use of uppers is making them weird and TRIGGERED they go into a whole junkie ramble about how they need it because x disorder and y syndrome...lol...riiiight...I guess the directions on the bottle say crush up that adderall and snort it, huh.
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