Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR)

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              For years I have experienced a strange, hard to describe, sensation in my body and my head whenever I thought of the sound of a fan or when my hair was being played with. These thoughts and activities would give me what I thought were chills, and the hair on the back of my neck would raise, including goose bumps. Whenever a friend would ask me what was wrong, I would just reply with, “I make myself cold when I think of ice cubes”. Of course, this sounded odd, but how was I supposed to explain this weird, pleasurable feeling they were causing without creeping anyone out? It was not until under a year ago I came across Youtube channels labeled “ASMR” with titles describing role playing as eye doctors, hair dressers, whispering fortune tellers and so on! This was very odd, yet as many good Youtube addicts do, I obviously had to click the link and find out.

                Many descriptions in the users’ videos do explain what ASMR is and even go into detail on the subject. From what I have gathered from those descriptions over time is that ASMR is not technically a proven… thing. In fact, I have trouble finding any research on it in EBSCO Host and Google Scholar. We do not quite understand exactly what it is or how it works, but studies are still being done since this feeling does occur in numerous individuals, and we want to understand how it works.

                Well let’s start with what it is characterized as. ASMR is described to be a tingling sensation from the head, spreading down the spine and outward towards the limbs, caused by a trigger. According to ASMR Research and Support (2013), there is a Type A, internal, and a Type B, external triggers. Type A involves thoughts, such as thinking about the sound of a hair dryer and you feel tingles and may even grow tired. Type B is the external activity causing the effect, such as going to the hair dressers and feeling tingles as they comb through your hair. Every individual is unique and may experience different levels of both of these triggers. Unfortunately, ASMR Research and Support is still ongoing and looking for participants to gather and interpret the data for later explanation on the topic, so there is not a lot of information that has been gathered yet (ASMR Research and Support, 2013).

                Then what have we gathered on how it might work? Could it be a release of dopamine or endorphins? How do the visual, physical, or verbal stimuli trigger such a strange response that always leads from our head down our spine? The nervous system, more specifically, neurons must be a part of this in my opinion. Similar responses are seen in individuals but through different stimuli, so how can these different forms of activity be sent in to the body causing similar reactions? I imagine the information being taken in by our sensory neurons as electrical information, traveling toward the interneuron, and reaching our motor neurons and pleasure center of the brain, causing the physical response. Perhaps it is also caused by the hormones from our Pineal glands. But some individuals experience the sensation more strongly than others while some do not experience any feeling at all. If the effect of ASMR is different for everyone, including the types of triggers that may work for some or may be different for others, then would that not mean we are all wired uniquely? I think maybe it is due to a difference in excitatory and inhibitory neural circuits in the body, but this still does not explain why hearing exams can be done using standardized tests to compare the ability of an individual’s level of hearing. I have learned in my Sensation and Perception class using the Signal Detection Theory that we all observe the same stimuli, but we perceive it differently, often caused by different response biases, such as one individual being conservative, meaning they are likely to say they do not hear the stimuli when they are unsure, and liberal, where an individual is more likely to say yes if they are unsure. The participants’ chances of guessing correctly or incorrectly were still 50/50, however, showing their hearing was very close, yet they gave different answers. Could this be related to the experiences shared by those with the tingles? But then how is it that some individuals do not feel anything or sometimes they do, but over time it goes away?

                In Harry Cheadle ‘s (2012) blog post, ASMR, the Good Feeling No One Can Explain, he says that the only information you will find on it is from minor websites created by those who have experienced it themselves. Cheadle also explains that there have been many skeptics, to the point where an entry on Wikipedia was even taken down for lack of scientific evidence, but we cannot just say it does not exist if thousands are reporting the same experience. Alas, there is still no answer from this writer who made contact with several professional Neurologists, those in charge of experimental research, and even ASMRers.

                Even Neurologist, Steven Novella (2012), could not come up with an answer. He mentions how he too has searched this topic expansively, where zero peer-reviewed articles have been found mainly due to this topic’s continuing research. His guess, however, is considering small seizures which can be caused by what we hear and can feel good. His other hypothesis considers the diversity of individuals’ brains. If we all have our own personalities, like our own things, choose differently, and so on, so it makes sense that we would have different responses to the ASMR’s stimulus. Novella refers to the pleasure response; our brains react to pain and pleasure in different ways, and we have a uniquely evolved form of feedbacks meant to help us survive. So are we tampering with that natural system, is my next question?

                Many people experience this tingling sensation, including myself, yet it has not been proven to exist through scientific evidence. Neurologists, Psychologists, doctors, those currently studying the phenomenon, and even the ASMRers themselves have no idea on how it works. There are many theories out there, including my own, and still so many questions. What do you think about ASMR? Youtube ASMR and try it for yourself!

 

References

Allen, J. (2013). Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. Retrieved from ASMR Research & Support website: http://www.asmr-    research.org/

Cheadle, Harry. (2012). ASMR, the Good Feeling No One Can Explain [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.vice.com     /read/asmr-the-good-feeling-no-one-can-explain

Novella, Steven. (2012, March 12). ASMR [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/asmr/

11 thoughts on “Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR)”

  1. This reminds me of something I used to do as a kid. I used to pretend I was cracking an egg on someone’s head and then the egg was spilling over their head and down their face. Though I used a hand motion over their head to make them feel the “spilling” of the egg, the feeling would spread down the body. Kind of like having your hair played with as you mentioned. I wonder if these sensations could have been learned through experience? For instance if your mom played with your hair as a child you somehow learned that sensation and connected it to pleasure? Definitely interesting!

    Reply

    • This is a very interesting thought. I do, personally believe, that it can definitely be learned from childhood and past experiences. In fact, a scratching video by WhispersUnicorn (I’ll add the link on the bottom for you) uses a friend as a volunteer who states in the video that her mother use to lightly scratch down her arms when she was young and it always gave her tingles. This could possibly be linked to perhaps something cognitive or maybe the sensation was ‘rewarded’? My guess is maybe the sensation represents or reminds you of a situation or person that made you happy. For instance, my mother would sing to us while she vacuumed, the air conditioner and hair dryer always meant quality time with family members was being had (though that sounds strange out of context), and as an infant, my mother told me she would gently rub my cheek, or I would weave thin cloth between my fingers. All of these things give me tingles and even put me to sleep, and apparently they did that when I was young as well. So yes, I could certainly imagine experience is related in some way. Very interesting idea, Hollattude!

      Arm Scratching, Hand Massage and Nail Care on Model. ASMR. Whisper!:

      Reply

  2. I must start out with the traditional interesting blog article, but I will expand on it!

    First I have a comment not necessarily about the blog but on the picture in your background, it makes it very hard to read parts of your blog (at least on my phone).

    I have never actually heard of ASMR before. And honestly after reading your blog i still don’t. All I could gather was that this is a nervous system problem that causes tingles to go down your spine. I get those too but I have always associated them with things that cause large amounts of emotion

    Reply

    • Yes, my background has been annoying me. I keep trying to change it to something where the text is actually visible, but the picture doesn’t want to change. I will try to have this fixed by the next blog. Sorry about that!
      As for what ASMR is, it is also called “braingasms” by many who are familiar with it, but it is now necessarily a sexual emotion or sensation (though certain websites have tried to intertwine the topic). The idea is that a trigger, which can be internal or external, or a mental/in-your-own-head source caused by either your imagination or thoughts like watching an instructional video or thinking of someone touching your hair, or a physical/outside source that is actually happening to or around you such as a vacuum cleaner sounding next to you or you are receiving a message at a spa. A trigger is what you would call any occurrence that causes the tingles you feel. Now the tingles are characterized as beginning in your head and scalp area, feeling like a simple chill, and they travel down your back and sometimes out to your limbs. The sensation can feel good, even causing the eyes to roll back looking somewhat awkwardly like an orgasm, hence “braingasm”. I have heard accounts of the tingle being so strong that it has actually caused minor pain in the limbs. It is true we do not know what it is exactly, kind of like a migraine which surprisingly is not terribly understood but they do happen to many people. The issue is that we cannot support its existence but we cannot disprove it either when you have thousands claiming to experience it. It was shocking to actually have a name for it when I stumbled across the word in a Youtube video. I had always just assumed I was weird. For now, it is just an unexplainable phenomenon. Thank you for your comment!

      Reply

  3. (allow me to finish my train of thought here)

    for example hearing “Amazing Grace” on the bag pipes, a 21 gun salute at a veterans funeral, a heart wrenching scene in a book/movie or even an extremely emotional song (for me it’s “The Little Girl” by John Michael Montgomery.)

    There are just some things that science cannot explain. It would appear that ASMR is one of them. It would appear that the data are too varied as to what the triggers are and the responses that people get from said triggers. There may never be peer reviewed articles on it for people to read. Then again there might be; one never knows what the future might bring.

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  4. How interesting that you did a blog on something that no one probably knows about! I am trying to think if I have ever experienced this ASMR, and am looking forward to watching the videos. It would have been nice if you put the videos up with the blog that way we could have seen what happens to ASMRs as well as read about it. I like that this is such a new phenomenon that even many professionals in the field do not know what causes ASMR. I am interested to see how much research they are going to be doing on this in the future. Maybe Dr. H will have something new to talk about during her lectures!

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  5. I can completely relate to this blog here. ASMR is unexplored territory even though it has been happening the thousands of people over many, many years. I would have to agree with you about each individual being “uniquely wired”, as each person has there own types of trigger stimuli — internal and external, both. From personal experience, I know that whenever I take a trip to the hairdresser, I end up falling asleep (and, embarrassingly enough, end up drooling just a tad). The soft, tingling sensation causes a feeling of relaxation and comfort, which just lulls me into sleep. And as you said yourself, this is a very common feeling among many — including yourself. It would be lovely to be able to learn more about this…”thing”, as you kindly put it.

    Reply

    • Haha this comment amuses me. Another!
      Nah but wouldn’t that be cool if it was discovered to be a ‘sixth sense’ sort of thing? I was actually watching… I believe it was a Vsauce2 video. No… nope it was not a Vsauce2 video. Perhaps I read a paper on it? I cannot remember so don’t take my word for it, but it discussed the idea of the 5 senses, which are very basic. The paper/video/mystery-material-that-may-prove-I’m-crazy-from-it’s-lack-of-existance brought up a good point; we seem have a hell of a lot more than just 5 senses. The… ‘material’ pointed out that the reason we learn those 5 are due to their more obvious existence, but how are we going to talk about a sixth or seventh or 21st sense to students? Those would be long lectures and deep conversation taking precious time away from learning about our ever-so-important parabolas and life changing effects of Shakespeare. (Sorry Shakespeare, but I have never NOT thrown you books on the ground after reading.) I will gladly post that source if I ever find it. I SWEAR it exists, but until then, if I can recall, one of the other senses mentioned was the sense of time. That feeling you get when you look at the sun and know it’s late or when you feel that anxiety of running out of time despite not looking at a clock, etc. is an amazing human ability — one that a number of animals posses as well. But I- what was I talking about? Did I get off topic? Oh! ASMR, yes. Eherm! I love the idea of you falling asleep and drooling in public from that feeling of your hair being touched. It makes me laugh. >:D But I wonder how that info transfers and processes in the brain from touch receptors. I mean I would have to imagine the hairs on your head and neck would serve as big sensors, including the skin. I know the skin has electrical currents and atoms that repel opposite charges microscopically, so maybe the electrical signals are… disrupted or increased or changed? This topic has such a wide variety of possibilities it hurts!

      Reply

      • Girl, I know you’re cray-cray even without the mention of a probably nonexistent article/book/video/etc. So there’s no saving yourself there. But I will take your word anyways and accept it! I have also heard of humans possessing more than just the initial five senses: Touch, hearing, smell, sight, and taste; though only possessing maybe one or two more extra senses. It would be interesting to learn about those possibly existing senses and how they relate to us in our everyday lives and what affect they may, or may not, have on our nervous system. Maybe with the learning of the ‘new’ senses, more doors will open up with the possibility of learning more about ASMR and why exactly certain sounds, actions, events, etc. trigger the pleasure sensors. Cool stuff, bro.

      • Hm, yes. Oh yes, I do agree. Mmhmm! (I’m trying to be creepy.) Haha, but yeah, whatever I found had a whole bunch of other sense listed and it said there were possibly many others we haven’t discovered yet. Another one may have been… I believe a sense of self? Kind of like the idea of knowing there is an object in space, but it is you and you do not need to physically see yourself, rather you just know you’re there. Shoot, son, can you imagine that discussing in classes?! It sounds like an acid trip in a fun-house! But I wonder what different brain scan images would look like if you incorporated these other senses. Man, how do you even measure them? My head hurts already.

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