Connecting Misophonia and Intelligence: Is Noise Intolerance an Indicator of Advance Brain Processing?

A little-known syndrome has been reportedly experienced by some people who demonstrate intense rage provoked by hearing particular sounds. This condition is known as misophonia, and experts suggest that the reason behind the selective sound sensitivity could be related to a person's cognitive ability.

What is Misophonia?

Misophonia refers to a condition in which one or more usual sounds, such as the ticking of a clock or a person chewing, causes the affected person to feel negative emotions like distress, anger, disgust, or panic.

It should be noted, however, that people with misophonia do not hate all sounds, but they are rather highly sensitive to particular sounds that can trigger strong emotional or physiological responses. This means that the specifics of misophonia vary from one individual to another.

Mild misophonia symptoms include discomfort, anxiety, disgust, and the urge to leave. Meanwhile, more severe symptoms can lead to rage, emotional distress, anger, panic, and fear.

Misophonia is currently not yet classified as a medical or psychiatric disorder, nor is it qualified for diagnosis under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM05) of the American Psychiatric Association. However, studies confirm that the symptoms experienced by people with this condition are real. In fact, they claim that their symptoms began when they reached the age of 9 to 13.

In a study conducted at the University of Amsterdam Academic Medical Center's Department of Psychology, the researchers identified the most common trigger sounds that spark negative emotions in people with misophonia. These include eating-related sounds (81%), loud breathing (64.3%), and the sound of keyboard typing or pen clicking (59.5%)

Are Misophonia and Intelligence Related?

Psychologists suggest that the sensory information processing of people with misophonia could be strongly connected to their divergent thinking and real-world creative achievement. Famous genius people such as Charles Darwin, Anton Chekhov, Franz Kafka, and Marcel Proust are known for having misophonia. Understanding the nature of sound hypersensitivity could provide new insight into intelligence.

According to researcher Darya L. Zabelina, a certain type of atypical attention nurtures creativity since it reduces a person's ability to disregard irrelevant sensory information. Zabelina suggests that real-world creative achievers cannot filter sensory information. It could be related to their mechanism for wider focus on a huge range of stimuli. Moreover, their ability to establish connections between unrelated ideas and concepts also accounts for their sound hypersensitivity response.

In a study published by Newcastle University, Dr. Sukhbinder discovered that people with misophonia suffer from supersensitized brain connection. An abnormal type of communication exists between the hearing center of the brain, the auditory cortex, and the regions of the ventral premotor cortex, which control the movement of a person's mouth, face, and throat.

Meanwhile, many people diagnosed with conditions such as anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and Tourette Syndrome are also known to experience sound hypersensitivity. For this reason, experts are exploring the possible connections and reasons for the overlap between these disorders and misophonia.