If every loud crunch¹ of cereal or hair-tingling slurp² of soup makes you want to scream, you may have a real neurological condition - and you're not alone.

如果一听到吃麦片时嘎吱嘎吱的声响或是喝汤时令人头皮发痒的哧溜声，你就想尖叫，那你可能真的患有神经障碍--但你不是一个人。

The technical term for the condition is misophonia, and it's defined as a severe sensitivity to sounds like chewing, coughing, yawning and more. Some people have more extreme cases of misophonia than others, and find themselves completely distracted by the noises, to the point where they need cognitive³ behavioral therapy.

该症状的学名为恐音症，指的是对咀嚼声、咳嗽声、打哈欠声等声音尤为敏感。有些人的恐音症程度比他人更严重，他们会被这些噪音分散注意力，甚至需要进行认知行为治疗。

While it was formally named as a condition in 2001, many skeptics still questioned whether misophonia was a real condition. But last year, a study published in the journal Current Biology showed that those with the disorder⁴ have a difference in their brain's frontal lobe⁵ that causes an intense reaction to noise, and can even lead to a faster heart rate and sweating.

虽然，2001年这一症状被正式命名，但很多怀疑论者仍有所疑问：恐音症真的存在吗？但去年，发表在《当代生物学》杂志上的一篇研究表明：恐音症患者的大脑额叶与他人不同，导致他们对噪音产生强烈反应，甚至导致心率更快、出汗更多。

"I hope this will reassure⁶ sufferers," Tim Griffiths, Professor of Cognitive Neurology at Newcastle University and University College London, said in a press release. "I was part of the skeptical⁷ community myself until we saw patients in the clinic and understood how strikingly similar the features are."

纽卡斯尔大学和伦敦大学学院的认知神经学教授蒂姆·格里菲斯在一次新闻发布会上说道："我希望这能让患者放心，我本人也对恐音症持怀疑态度，但直到看到诊所里的那些病人，我才开始了解这些特征是如此惊人的相似。"

And in February, another study found that having misophonia can impact people's ability to learn. According to the study, published in the journal Applied⁸ Cognitive Psycology, a noise as subtle as gum chewing is enough to impact academic performance.

2月份，另一项研究发现：恐音症会影响人们的学习能力。这篇研究发表在《应用认知心理学》杂志上，研究表明：即使是嚼口香糖等轻微的噪声也足以影响一个人的学业成绩。

"Some people are especially sensitive to relatively⁹ subtle specific background sounds like chewing, and this sensitivity can be distracting enough to impair¹⁰ learning," study co-author Logan Fiorella, an assistant professor of applied cognition and development at the University of Georgia, told TIME.

"有些人对咀嚼声等较为轻微的背景声尤为敏感，这种敏感度可能会分散他们的注意力，从而影响学习，"研究的合著作者、乔治亚大学应用认知和发展学助理教授Logan Fiorell对《时代》杂志说道。

The researchers had 72 college students study papers on migraines, with half sitting in a room with a person chewing gum, and the others without. They all then took a test on the material in silence, and those with the gum-chewer had lower test scores.

研究员要求72位大学生研究有关偏头痛的文章，一半的学生坐在一个有人嚼口香糖的房间里，其他人则坐在普通房间里。然后再要求所有人安静地做有关偏头痛的测试，那些坐在有人嚼口香糖的房间内的大学生得分更低。

Fiorella noted¹¹ that none of the students had misophonia, but were still impacted by the noise.

Fiorella指出没有学生患有恐音症，但噪音仍对他们的测试结果产生了影响。

"It may be especially important for students with higher levels of misophonia sensitivity to avoid studying in places where there are a lot of 'trigger' sounds, such as other people chewing, coughing, clicking pens, or rustling¹² papers," Fiorella said.

"对噪声特别敏感的恐音症患者而言，记住这一点很重要：避开在有噪音的地方学习，比如有人嚼东西、咳嗽、不停地按笔或在纸上奋笔疾书的地方，"Fiorella说道。