Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff,
Speaker 1: it's Christian Seger. Do you want to strangle people who
Speaker 1: chew with their mouth open? Does the sound of slurping
Speaker 1: noodles drive you mad? What about chewing gum, heavy breathing,
Speaker 1: frequent sighing, or chronic snoring? Does the sound of flatwear
Speaker 1: dragging and clinking across a plate fill you with unending rage?
Speaker 1: If so, you might just have mis aphonia and you're
Speaker 1: not alone. But what is it? There are still a
Speaker 1: lot of questions about this relatively new diagnosis, but we
Speaker 1: know that some sounds drive certain people acutely bonkers. And
Speaker 1: I am not talking about slight annoyances or just getting irritated.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about having certain sounds trigger powerful and intense feelings,
Speaker 1: ranging from panic and anxiety to anger and yes, even arousal.
Speaker 1: If ordinary irritation would be a three on a one
Speaker 1: to ten scale, then this stuff is more of a twelve,
Speaker 1: or if you ask someone with miss aphonia, a two million.
Speaker 1: The list of trigger sounds goes on. Plosive pas like
Speaker 1: the sounds of pop, kiss, noises, plastic bags, and even
Speaker 1: pouring water can all make miss aphonius sufferers furious, so
Speaker 1: what exactly is going on here? The term miss aphonia
Speaker 1: means hatred of sounds, and it was made by two neuroscientists,
Speaker 1: Powell and Margaret Jasterboff. Most experts believe that miss aphonia
Speaker 1: is a neurological problem rather than a problem with an
Speaker 1: individual's hearing system. In Dr Judith Kraudhammer argued that the
Speaker 1: problem could be traced back to areas of the brain
Speaker 1: called the insular cortex and the anterior singulated cortex. A
Speaker 1: dysfunctional assessment of neural signals in the brain triggers this
Speaker 1: intense discomfort. Interestingly enough, these areas are also hubs for
Speaker 1: processing anger, pain, and sensory information. There are competing views
Speaker 1: of the causes of miss aphonia. Aga R. Moehler believes
Speaker 1: that the dysfunction is in the central nervous system, that
Speaker 1: it's hardwired in people and is a physiological abnormality rather
Speaker 1: than an auditory disorder. Powell Jasterboff believes that people can't
Speaker 1: be born with miss aphonia, but that there might be
Speaker 1: a genetic factor in the mix. Currently, experts think it
Speaker 1: develops in late childhood and early adolescence and worsens over time.
Speaker 1: Miss Aphonia is also often confused with other ailments, such
Speaker 1: as O, C, D, phobic disorders, or hyperacusis. People with
Speaker 1: hyperacusis are overly sensitive to certain frequencies or ranges of sound. However,
Speaker 1: if you have miss aphonia, the volume of your trigger
Speaker 1: sound probably doesn't matter. Miss Aphonia can develop from a
Speaker 1: range of possible factors, and patients with other audio disorders
Speaker 1: can also develop the condition. According to audiologist Miriam Westcott,
Speaker 1: tonitus sufferers can also develop miss aphonia over time. Westcott
Speaker 1: argues that some causes for miss aphonia may include an
Speaker 1: obsession with sounds that irritated or scared you in childhood,
Speaker 1: pointing to a possible psychological factor. So all right, if
Speaker 1: we put all of this together, then it seems that
Speaker 1: experts agree on a few things. One, people with miss
Speaker 1: aphonia aren't just cranky jerks. They have no control over
Speaker 1: their reaction to miss Aphonia develops over time. And three
Speaker 1: it may likely be caused by multiple factors. And there's
Speaker 1: a little bad news at this point. There's no universally
Speaker 1: recognized and effective treatment from miss aphonia. So if the
Speaker 1: sound of snoring, smack, and other mouth noises turns you
Speaker 1: into a monster. Then you'll be glad to know that
Speaker 1: research on miss aphonia continues as I'm speaking to you.
Speaker 1: Organizations in the United Kingdom have launched miss Aphonia Monday
Speaker 1: to raise awareness for this condition. Check out the brain
Speaker 1: stuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.