Let’s Talk About ASMR Sounds! It can Calm your Brain!
I heard about ASMR this week, and I was shocked. I started to watch a new Netflix series called Follow This. I love this kind of series, so I was easily addicted.
They had this lady who wanted to learn more about ASMR and she explained what ASMR is and showed some great examples and how it works in real life. POW! My brain exploded.
The ASMR boom happened in 2007, how did I miss it? Where was I? Of course, I spent my whole day thinking about ASMR, I needed to write about it too. I kept thinking:
- How did I never hear about this before?
- What is happening with my brain when I listen to this?
Let’s breathe. I’m going to explain what ASMR is. It actually means “autonomous sensory meridian response.” According to Wikipedia, ASMR signifies the subjective experience of “low-grade euphoria” characterized by “a combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling sensation on the skin.” It is most commonly triggered by specific auditory or visual stimuli.
- Autonomous: Spontaneous, self-governing with or without control
- Sensory: Pertaining to the senses or sensation
- Meridian: Signifying a peak, climax, or point of highest development
- Response: An experience triggered by something external or internal
Say WHAT? It sounds crazy. I’ve talked about some Spotify playlists for productivity before, and I’m obsessed with the Brain Food playlist, but some ASMR stimuli can give you a totally different sensation. Maybe you’ll get what I mean my watching this video. If you have a headphone close to you, you should use it:
How do you feel? Do you feel a tingle in the back of your ear? How’s your brain? ASMR colloquial terms in usage included “brain massage,” “head tingle,” “brain tingle,” “spine tingle,” and “brain orgasm.” It’s usually precipitated by stimuli referred to as “triggers.”
ASMR triggers, which are most commonly auditory and visual, may be encountered through the many interactions we have in our daily life. Not all people can be triggered by ASMR. Sometimes you’re triggered by some kind of stimuli, but not all of them. Stimuli that can trigger ASMR include:
Soft spoken or whispering voice
Listening to a softly spoken or whispering voice. Psychologists Nick Davis and Emma Barratt discovered that whispering was an effective trigger for 75% of the 475 subjects who took part in an experiment to investigate the nature of ASMR.
Quiet and repetitive sounds
Listening to quiet, repetitive sounds resulting from someone engaging in a mundane task such as turning the pages of a book. It can be also triggered by the sound of rain, among other things.
Mundane task
Listening and watching somebody attentively execute a mundane task such as preparing food. It can explain why some mundane YouTube videos are so popular and have lots of views.
Loud sounds
What do you feel about the sound of loud chewing? How about crunching, slurping, or biting foods? And drinks? Or bubblegum? They make me really uncomfortable, I can’t even think about it. Again, now I understand why some YouTube videos exist.
Personal attention
How do you feel when someone gives you 100% of her/his attention? Receiving altruistic, tender, personal attention can trigger ASMR too. Psychologists Nick Davis and Emma Barratt discovered that personal attention was an effective trigger for 69% of the 475 subjects who participated in a study conducted at Swansea University, second in popularity only to whispering. The personal attention can be physical touch, vocal expression, and also having your hair cut or washed of back massage, for example.
Conscious stimulation
Listening to someone talk about a specific topic or describe a situation. Interestingly, it can also be triggered over the camera. It has the same stimuli effect as an in-person experience.
ASMR Brain
Brain areas such as the medial prefrontal cortex (associated with social behaviors including grooming) and the secondary somatosensory cortex (associated with the sensation of touch) were activated more strongly during tingle periods than control periods.
“Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is an experience characterized by a static-like or tingling sensation on the skin that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. It has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia and may overlap with frisson” — Wikipedia.
There are two categories of ASMR:
- One depends upon external triggers in order to experience the localized sensation, and it’s associated with feelings that typically originate in the head, often reaching down to the neck and sometimes the upper back.
- The second category is really interesting. Through attentional control, it can intentionally augment the sensation and feeling without dependence upon external triggers. It can be compared to the sensation of meditation and deep focus.
ASMR Media
Videos can be a great source of triggering ASMR, and so far, it’s the most popular source of stimuli. Although I was triggered first through audio. The media is categorized into two categories: intentional and unintentional.
Intentional: It’s a media created for the ASMR community with the purpose of triggering these folks with video + sound or only sound.
Unintentional: It’s a media created for other purposes, but that can trigger the ASMR community, for example, a video of someone combing their hair.
ASMR Benefits
Binaural recording is sound made specifically to be heard through headphones. When you listen to a sound in your loudspeaker, what happens is that your left and right ear can both hear the sounds coming from both speakers as the same sound.
By default, in your headphones, the left earpiece is supposed to be only in your left earpiece, and the right to the right earpiece. When you create a binaural media, the sound source is recorded separately in different microphones. The microphones are placed in different areas far from each other and they’re also not mixed, rather a separate and unique piece delivered directly to your right or left earpiece. Isn’t that incredible?
If you view or hear ASMR media that has ambient sound captured through binaural recording, it has been compared to the reported effect of listening to binaural beats, which are also alleged to precipitate pleasurable sensations and the subjective experience of calm and equanimity.
Listening to a binaural recording through headphones simulates the binaural hearing by which people listen to live sounds. For the listener, this experience is characterized by two perceptions. The listener perceives being in close proximity to the performers and location of the sound source. The listener perceives what is often reported as a three-dimensional sound.
The article, “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR): a flow-like mental state,” by Nick Davis and Emma Barratt, lecturer and post-graduate researcher, respectively, in the Department of Psychology at Swansea University. This article describes that engagement with ASMR may ease symptoms of depression and chronic pain. The research participants that had regularly consumed ASMR media reported the benefits of improved mood and reduced pain symptoms. ASMR also warrants further investigation as a potential therapeutic measure similar to that of meditation and mindfulness.
They concluded that “the brain regions found most active during the tingling sensations were the nucleus accumbens, mPFC, insula and secondary somatosensory cortex,” and suggested that these were similar to “activation of brain regions previously observed during experiences like social bonding and musical frisson.”
- Experience of calm and equanimity
- The sensation of being close to the performers
- Proximity to the location of the sound source
- Three-dimensional sound
- May ease symptoms of depression and chronic pain
- Improving mood
- Potential therapeutic measure
- Social bonding
- Musical frisson
Additional Resources
Research
If you have five minutes, please answer the research I’m doing about ASMR. I’d love to hear your impressions and feedback after you listen/watch ASMR media.
I hope you found it as interesting as I did. I’d love to hear your thoughts about ASMR!
👋 Feel Free to Clap and Share your Thoughts!
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