We all hate certain noises.
Nails screeching down a chalkboard. A crow squawking early in the morning. Someone playing house music on the bus a little too early in the morning.
They all get to us sometimes, but it turns out if sounds like people chewing or a sweet bag rustling absolutely wrecks your head, you might be dealing with a brain abnormality.
The condition is called Misophonia and it literally means 'hatred of sound'.
Newcastle University carried out a study which saw 42 people have their brain scanned in an MRI machine. 20 people had the condition and 22 people had not.
While in the machine, the participants had to listen to a series of noises which ranged from rain to screaming.
The medical findings were published in
Current Biology and found that an anterior insular part of the brain linked senses with emotions, and felt more intense for those who suffered from Misophonia.
Dr Sukhbinder Kumar, who conducted the study, said:
"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."
Before adding:
"This study defines a clear phenotype based on changes in behaviour, autonomic responses, and brain activity and structure that will guide ongoing efforts to classify and treat this pernicious disorder."
