Here's why you can't stand the sound of someone chewing or a pen clicking

<p>REASON WHY YOU CAN'T STAND THE SOUND OF SOMEONE CHEWING OR A PEN CLICKING: Do you hate the sound of a continuous pen clicking or someone chewing their food a bit too loud? Is it so annoying that you decide to change your seat at the cinema or rather confront them at the restaurant? Well, you are not alone then; you belong to a tribe which has a brain abnormality known as misphonia.<br></p>

<p>WHAT IS MISPHONIA: Until some time ago, scientists were not sure if they can consider misphonia as a genuine medical condition. However, a UK-based research team identified that the sufferers of misphonia had a frontal lobe different from those who didn’t have it.<br></p>

<p> AN ABNORMAL EMOTIONAL CONTROL MECHANISM: When the people who have misphonia hear trigger sounds, their brains may go into an overdrive. This is because they have an abnormal emotional control mechanism and trigger sounds can lead to changes in their brain activity. This was revealed in their brain imaging conducted by scientists and published in the journal ‘Current Biology’.<br></p>

<p>SYMPTOMS OF MISPHONIA: The emotional response to trigger sounds even includes an increase in heart rate and sweating in many.<br></p>

<p>TRIGGER SOUNDS, NEUTRAL SOUNDS AND UNPLEASANT SOUNDS: During the study, participants were made to listen to various sounds that included trigger sounds, neutral sounds and unpleasant sounds. The trigger sounds included sounds of breathing and eating while neutral sounds included sounds such as rain, water boiling and a crowded café. Unpleasant sounds included the screams of a person and a baby crying.<br></p>

<p>BRAIN CHANGES WHILE LISTENING TO TRIGGER SOUNDS: When the participants were made to listen to various kinds of sounds, their brain changes were recorded using an MRI. The changes were observed in people who had misphonia during trigger sounds.<br></p>

<p>MISPHONIA NOW A GENUINE DISORDER: Dr Sukhbinder Kumar, one of the researchers of the study, said, “This study demonstrates the critical brain changes as further evidence to convince a sceptical medical community that this is a genuine disorder.”<br></p>