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No matter how tolerant we are, most of us feel uncomfortable if a person sitting close to us in a quiet cinema starts noisily opening a bag of chips and loudly eating them.
无论有多么强大的忍耐力，大多数人遇到下面这种情况都会觉得不舒服——本来电影院中一片寂静，可坐在自己旁边的一个人突然开始刺啦撕开一包薯片，然后大声吃了起来。
But for some people, who suffer from misophonia, certain repetitive noise can be hardly bearable.
而对一些深受恐音症困扰的人来说，某种重复性的声音一旦出现就会让他们难以忍受。
"Mainly sounds made by people's mouth or breathing. This is certain speech sounds, chewing, certain other sort of noisy wet noises from the mouth, yes, noisy breathing as well. Other ones include things like repetitive noises, pen clicking, foot tapping, keyboards sometimes, packets rustling."
“主要就是人们嘴里发出的声音或者呼吸声。某些说话声，咀嚼声，从嘴里发出的那种很吵的水声，对了，还有呼吸噪声。另外还有一些比如说重复性的噪声、按笔声、点脚声，有时候是敲击键盘声，或者摩擦包装袋的声音。”
Scientists at the Newcastle University wanted to see whether there is a physical evidence of this sensitivity.
纽卡斯尔大学的科学家们想看看这种敏感性是否有实体证明。
Volunteers were asked to rate the level of unpleasantness of different sounds, from neutral, such as rainfall or the sound of boiling water, to irritating, like noisy eating, loud breathing or a crying baby.
于是他们邀请志愿者来为各种令人不悦的声音评定等级，首先从一些较平和的声音开始测起，例如下雨或者水开的声音，然后再到那些恼人的声音，比如大声吃饭的声音，粗重的喘息声还有婴儿的啼哭声。
Their brain scans showed that misophonia has to do with the size of an area in our brains that regulates emotional responses.
科学家在对他们进行脑部扫描之后发现，恐音症与人类大脑当中一片区域的大小有关，这片区域可以调节人体情绪反应。
"But it was smaller and less developed in these people with misophonia at a group level. Nothing you'd see on an individual brain screen basis, but suggesting that there may actually be brain structural alterations."
“对于患有恐音症的人群来说，这片区域相对较小，而且发展也欠完善。虽然我们并没有在每个人单独的脑屏幕上发现任何异常，但通过对比却表明，大脑结构确实可能发生了改变。”
But the discovery opened new questions.
不过这项发现却引出了新的问题。
"It's difficult to know which is the chicken and which is the egg, whether this is the cause of misophonia or in part, or whether this is the consequence of having this condition or an unpleasant adverse condition like this and how it affects the brain in the long term."
“到底哪个是因哪个是果我们很难得知，这片区域是否真的是恐音症的全部或部分病因也很难说，抑或是否先出现这种情况或者其他令人不悦的不利情况，才导致这片区域发生变化的，以及它是如何长期影响大脑的我们都无从知晓。”
Scientists say they also want to find out whether severe misophonia is treatable, but they say everybody should be aware that some people are genuinely sensitive to certain noises.
科学家们称，他们还想要查明重度恐音症是否可以治愈，不过他们还表示，所有人都应该要知道，有些人确实对某种声音很敏感。
George Putic, VOA news, Washington.
VOA新闻，乔治·普提克于华盛顿为您播报。
