Publishing today, in the Journal of Neuroscience, lead author Dr. Sukhbinder Kumar, Newcastle University Research Fellow in the Biosciences Institute said: “Our findings indicate that for individuals with misophonia there is abnormal interaction in between the acoustic and motor brain regions– you could explain it as a supersensitized connection.
” This is the very first time such a connection in the brain has been identified for the condition.”
Misophonia, which indicates actually hatred of sound, is a condition in which victims experience uncontrolled and intense reactions to certain noises made by other individuals, referred to as trigger sounds. Trigger noises are frequently the noise of somebody chewing, breathing or speaking and for victims, generally related to mouth, throat, or facial activity.
Their response is typically extreme, and tends to consist of a combination of anger, disgust, fight-or-flight response, often a desire to hurt the individual making the noise or to leave the circumstance.
The condition is common affecting anywhere between 6% to 20% of people. Those with the more serious types can find themselves unable to endure household, work, public or social scenarios.
Previously, misophonia had been considered a disorder of sound processing. This brand-new research recommends that together with this there is an abnormal kind of communication between the brains hearing center, the auditory cortex, and the locations of the ventral pre-motor cortex that are responsible for movement of the mouth, face, and throat.
In response to activate or neutral noise, scans on people with misophonia showed that the brains auditory cortex (hearing center) responded similarly to individuals without the condition, nevertheless, individuals with misophonia revealed increased communication between the auditory cortex and the motor control locations associated with the mouth, throat, and face. These motor control regions were strongly activated by trigger sounds in people with misophonia in action only to their trigger sounds, but not to other sound types or in individuals without the condition.
Dr. Kumar includes: “What amazed us was that we likewise found a similar pattern of interaction in between the visual and motor areas, which shows that misophonia can also take place when activated by something visual.
” This leads us to think that this communication triggers something called the mirror system, which helps us process movements made by other people by activating our own brain in a comparable method– as if we were making that movement ourselves.
” We believe that in people with misophonia involuntary overactivation of the mirror system leads to some type of sense that sounds made by other individuals are horning in their bodies, beyond their control.
” Interestingly, some people with misophonia can reduce their symptoms by mimicking the action generating the trigger sound, which may show restoring a sense of control. Utilizing this understanding may help us develop new treatments for individuals with the condition.”
Tim Griffiths, Professor of Cognitive Neurology at Newcastle University, who is a senior author on the research study and also a neurologist, included: “The research study provides new ways to think of the treatment options for misophonia. Instead of concentrating on noise centers in the brain, which lots of existing treatments do, efficient therapies ought to think about motor locations of the brain also.”
The group will be additional investigating whether this understanding can help develop more effective treatments for misophonia in the future.
Reference: “The Motor Basis for Misophonia” by Sukhbinder Kumar, Pradeep Dheerendra, Mercede Erfanian, Ester Benzaquén, William Sedley, Phillip E. Gander, Meher Lad, Doris E. Bamiou and Timothy D. Griffiths, 30 June 2021, Journal of Neuroscience.DOI: 10.1523/ JNEUROSCI.0261-21.2021.
A supersensitized brain connection has actually been recognized in people who suffer from misophonia, an extreme reaction to “set off” sounds.
For the very first time, researchers led by Newcastle University, have found increased connection in the brain between the auditory cortex and the motor control areas connected to the mouth, throat, and face.
