Why are you angry when the next person chews?

By brain scanning studies, British scientists explain why you and some people become angry, even mad at the breathing or chewing of their neighbors.

According to the article published in the February 2, 2017 issue of Current Biology, these people suffer from misophonia syndrome (hate sounds) - a situation in which a person can easily be upset or angry by the sounds. Small bar like chewing food, clicking tongue, snoring or even loud breathing. British scientists argue that increased activity in the part of the brain that processes and controls emotions creates anger and anxiety in response to the sounds of eating, drinking, breathing.

People who hate sound react much more harshly to chewing and breathing sounds.

The researchers gave 20 people suffering from misophonia and 22 people who did not have this condition heard different sounds while receiving magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Some sounds are neutral, like the sound of rain falling. Some other sounds, such as the sound of children crying, make both groups uncomfortable but do not cause an aversion to sound. And finally, a group of sounds is said to cause stress for people who hate sound like noise emitted by chewing and breathing.

Both groups of subjects reacted similarly to neutral sound and annoying sounds. But those who hate sound react much more intensely to chewing and breathing sounds. The resonant scan results from the brain show that their prefrontal cortex - a brain structure associated with emotional processing - is more active.

The scientists also found that there are differences in brain structure - there are more connections from the frontal lobe shell to structures that help treat emotions like the amygdala, located in the center of the brain. The site of human emotions and hippocampus, a part of the anterior brain, is a structure within the temporal lobe.

According to research co-author, Sukhbinder Kumar, a neuroscientist from Newcastle University (UK), the daily sound that most people overlook creates a very strong emotional response to haters. sound. Their "designated" brains add importance to certain sounds. But scientists still do not know why only special sounds cause such reactions.