Fill in the Blanks Misophonia: an actual condition or just a pet peeve?Online version ESL. B2-C1. GAP-FILL. by Boglárka Kozári 1 Misophonia The term " misophonia " ( Greek for hatred of sound ) was first introduced 17 years ago and is thought to manifest in adolescence almost one in four men and women . The sounds that usually a reaction in misophonia are repetitive behaviours like pen clicking , as well as loud breathing and eating noises according to a new by postgraduate Neuroscience student at UC San Diego , Emilie Reas . Studies showed that such sounds can uncontrollable irritation and even anger but sufferers of this newly discovered condition usually tend to their reactions in social settings in fear of being judged . The recent research carried out on misophonia is more light on how your body reacts to such sounds and the evidence seems to suggest that this is an actual condition rather than just a pet peeve . Even though there's not a lot of research to a clear - cut neurobiological explanation , it is thought that Misophonia might be caused by emotional or attentional processing in the Brain's sensory auditory circuits , as shown by an EEG study . Functional MRI ( fMRI ) imaging has been used to monitor the neural activity of misophonic individuals and an area of the cerebral cortex known as the " insula " lit up in to the trigger sounds . Other studies found that misophonia might be caused by the same connectivity issues that in a similar condition : synesthesia where one stimulus triggers a different sensation than it should . Luckily , it has been proposed that conditioning retraining and cognitive behavioural therapy can help the symptoms but we should expect more treatments to come as this novel condition is further studied .
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