[Content WARNING: Detailed description of a sensitive sensory experiences; anxiety; low mood; cartoon images of brains]
MISOPHONIA . What does that word mean? Where has it come from? I’m sure, even if this is not your first time encountering the word, one of those questions probably passed across your mind at some point.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
If we take the literal definition of the word, ‘Misophonia’ means: “a hatred, allergy or phobia of sound.” Sounds pretty harsh right? Imagine walking into a room and having the potential to experience an allergic reaction to any single sound that you might hear. Or even worse, not even knowing which sounds will cause such a reaction. I imagine you’re thinking that wouldn’t be a very pleasant experience.
On a more scientific level, the diagnosis of ‘Misophonia’ isn’t that far off the literal translation from the Greek term. Although a relatively new disorder to be researched, professionals have seemed to reach an agreement on the basic, broad definition of this neurological condition.
‘A disorder where people have abnormally strong and negative reactions to ordinary sounds.’ [Medical News Today]
‘Known as selective-sound sensitivity syndrome, it’s a genuine abnormality of the brain with both psychological and physiological symptoms…this hypersensitivity to sound causes a fight-or-flight response in people…can interfere with their daily lives.’ [Healthline: Ryan-Evans, 2017]
‘Hypersensitivity’, ‘abnormal reactions’ and ‘fight-or-flight’ are reoccurring themes within professionals diagnosis and observation of symptoms. An example of how disruptive this can be:
Imagine you’re walking through a forest late in the afternoon. There is a slight chill in the air and the sun is just about to set. You’re a little concerned about walking in the dark – your mind keeps playing tricks on you, making you see flashes of things that aren’t really there, or hearing soft rustles that are only really the wind.
As a result, you’re on edge. Your senses are involuntarily heightened in anticipation for what you might come across. Then everything calms down. You keep walking and slowly your brain starts to relax, convinced that there is nothing to be worried about. You can see the house you’re staying at through an opening in the trees. Slowly, your heightened senses, your body tensed in anxiety over the looming darkness of the wood, begins to reduce. You feel safer.
But then, just as you continue walking towards the welcoming house, a bear wanders onto your path. You freeze, images and thoughts about every possible scenario from there on rushing into your brain, flooding any rational, logical part of your sensesas the large creature lumbers into view. Your heart begins to race, your eyes grow wide and you can feel the sudden urge to pelt forward and run as fast as you can.
All you have to do is escape. Escape and everything will be fine. It doesn’t matter how, or why. Your brain is simply telling you to get yourself and your panicked state out of that terrifying situation. Adrenaline floods your body, your fingers tingle, your legs suddenly feel as if they can run a marathon and, you cannot stop yourself as you hurtle away. You don’t stop running until the bear is no longer in sight. And even then, your heart takes longer to return to a slow, rhythmic beat. Your mind takes even longer than that to reassure you the bear has not followed behind.
This is a prime example of a fight-or-flight reaction. Granted, it’s an uncommon situation where I’m from (UK), but it explicitly details the processes of the instinctive experience. I’m not saying every person who has misophonia sees a bear whenever they hear a sound. Nor am I saying they hurtle out of the room every time they experience a reaction.
But this adrenaline rush, the idea of needing to escape and the frantic psychological and physiological reactions drawn from this example can be and are experienced. The racing heart, the heightened senses, the reduce of all logic and rationale and the frantic need to escape the situation; all these are possible reactions from someone suffering with misophonia.
To give an idea of how broad these reactions can be, however, an article I came across in Psychology Today[i] puts some of the findings quite nicely, referring to reactions as causing: “sympathetic nervous system arousal and aversive emotions, which then become associated in memory and consequently increase upon exposure.” They refer to reactions towards some visual triggers, such as repetitive rocking and the experience of irritation and disgust, in addition to the example I gave, of intense anxiety and anger.
WHERE HAS IT COME FROM? (Or more accurately: what causes a reaction?)
Let’s get biological! Or rather, neurological.
Given that it’s a relatively recently researched disorder (as of 2001), there is not an extensive amount of research or scientific information I can draw from to give you a balanced, reasonable view on the causes and neurological impacts of misophonia. But, given I’m a psychology student and find excitement in researching these kind of things (I know, I’m such a nerd.), I’ve tried to pool together as clear an explanation as possible.
Joseph E. LeDoux[ii], to answer the question of whether misophonia is neurological, has looked towards a possible cause being the over-active state of an area of the brain called the amygdala. (the little red dot in the image below.) This area of the brain is commonly associated with a variety of brain processes: included the management of emotions, such as fear. Remember that fearful state, was something mentioned in the experience example.
This neurological cause is thought to have similar links to a term called ‘synesthesia’[iii]. This means that there is enhanced activity and connectivity between the auditory cortex and the limbic structures. [Auditory Cortex: Processes sound. Limbic Structures: Key areas for emotional responses.]
It’s alright me quoting brain region names at you… But what does this all actually mean?
I found an article from The Hearing Journal[iv] explained the neurological processes quite well. Research referenced in this article demonstrated that exposure to ‘trigger sounds’ increased neural activity in an area of the brain we call the ‘anterior insular cortex’ (or, for ease of writing, AIC) within those who had misophonia. And they consider this currently to be the strongest piece of evidence towards what might cause such intense reaction in misophonia studies.
The AIC is involved in a number of processes: Making decisions that might have uncertain outcomes, decisions where morals might be required and, what is important here, it’s associated with levels of anxiety and neuroticism, the ‘triggering’ of disgust…you get the idea. It’s a pretty vital part of quite a few emotional processes.
In brief, what this suggests is that a trigger sound is heard by the individual, and it increases activity within areas such as these and this causes the various reactions you may see a misophonia or selective sensitivity sufferer display.
It’s not a perfect explanation and it doesn’t give an explanation as to WHY some people are more sensitive to selective sounds than others. But it hopefully gives a bit of an idea what happens within the brain when a trigger sound is heard, and show that ‘Selective Sensitive Sound Syndrome’, ‘4S’ or ‘Misophonia’ is a neurological condition that cannot easily be regulated or ‘switched off’.
[i] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/noises/201908/misophonia-misokinesia-and-the-brain [ii] https://www.misophoniainternational.com/misophonia-neurological/ [iii] Edelstein, Brang, Rouw and Ramachandran (2013) https://www.misophoniainternational.com/misophonia-neurological/ [iv]https://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/Fulltext/2020/03000/Misophonia__A_Neurologic,_Psychologic,_and.5.aspx
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