The sound of noisy eating can trigger an extreme reaction, called misophonia (file picture)

Many of us find the sounds of our loved ones eating annoying.

But for some people simple sounds like this trigger an extreme reaction.

One sufferer of the condition, called ‘misophonia’, said she feels like punching people in the face when she hears the ‘trigger sound’ of family members crunching on crisps.

But when she went to her doctor, she said he laughed in her face.

Now scientists have shown that the condition has a real biological basis and goes way beyond simply being irritable.

Brain scans show that people who find the sound of chewing, breathing, or numerous other conditions unbearable have a genuine brain abnormality.

People with misophonia – as the condition was named in 2001 - can respond with an intense ‘fight or flight’ reaction.

Researchers at Newcastle University found a difference in the frontal lobe in misophonia sufferers, suggesting it is a genuine condition where medical opinion in the past has been sceptical.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, they found changes in the brain activity when a trigger sound is experienced.

They also found people with misophonia experienced an increased heart rate and sweated when they were confronted by a trigger sound.

The difference lies in the ‘emotional control mechanism’ that causes their brains to go into overdrive on hearing trigger sounds, the authors write.

Dr Sukhbinder Kumar, from the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University, said: ‘For many people with misophonia, this will come as welcome news as for the first time we have demonstrated a difference in brain structure and function in sufferers.

‘This study demonstrates the critical brain changes as further evidence to convince a sceptical medical community that this is a genuine disorder.’

Tim Griffiths, Professor of Cognitive Neurology at Newcastle University and UCL, said: ‘I hope this will reassure sufferers.

‘I was part of the sceptical community myself until we saw patients in the clinic and understood how strikingly similar the features are.’

One misophonia sufferer said her GP laughed when she told him about her symptoms.

Olana Tansley-Hancock, 29, from Ashford in Kent, was eight years old when family meals became unbearable for her.

She said: ‘The noise of my family eating forced me to retreat to my own bedroom for meals.

‘I can only describe it as a feeling of wanting to punch people in the face when I heard the noise of them eating - and anyone who knows me will say that doesn’t sound like me.’

Brain scans show that people who find the sound of chewing, breathing, or numerous other conditions unbearable have a genuine brain abnormality (file picture)

The issue came to a head when she went to university and had to move train carriages seven times because the noise of people eating and rustling papers was unbearable.

‘When I saw my GP at the time, he laughed at me,’ she said.

‘Then I tried a counsellor but in my case, that made it worse as it made me even more sensitive to sound.’

After researching misophonia, she has changed her lifestyle, reducing her caffeine and alcohol intake and uses headphones when visiting the cinema.

She said:’This research is a huge relief as it shows there is a physical basis for misophonia which should help others understand the condition.

‘It also opens up the opportunity for better management.’