ASMR

[neoshinok]

Just wondering if anyone else here experiences the phenomenon known as ASMR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response

I've experienced this since childhood and only found recently that a small percentage of people have it, and these groups have created material specifically for inducing ASMR, such as audio and video recordings.

 

[luv]

Nope. Never even heard of it.

What is like for you a.

 

[trr1]

no but I have had Tinnitus all my life and thought it was normal

 

[Sans Souci]

This keeps popping up in my You Tube feed. I think it's because I stream yoga practices there, so I get "new age-y" suggestions. I watched out of curiosity and I think there's a fetish component to it. It's always a young, whispering woman performing various taks such as going through a check list, pretending to give an eye exam, or a hair cut. The videos I've seen assume the viewer is male.

I experience this, but for me it happens when someone touches my scalp or brushes my hair and when I listen certain types of music. I don't know if I am ready to call it a thing, you know? Nobody has really studied it yet and I am someone who is very "evidence based."

 

[Master Yoda]

This keeps popping up in my You Tube feed. I think it's because I stream yoga practices there, so I get "new age-y" suggestions. I watched out of curiosity and I think there's a fetish component to it. It's always a young, whispering woman performing various taks such as going through a check list, pretending to give an eye exam, or a hair cut. The videos I've seen assume the viewer is male.

I experience this, but for me it happens when someone touches my scalp or brushes my hair and when I listen certain types of music. I don't know if I am ready to call it a thing, you know? Nobody has really studied it yet and I am someone who is very "evidence based."

The Wikepedia article sited has some quotes in it from Dr Steven Novella. The quotes seem to come from this particular article. Dr Novella is a clinical neurologist and assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine, but more importantly he is a very prominent figure in the skeptical movement. He is the host of Skeptics Guide to the Universe (one of the most popular critical thinking/science/skeptical podcasts) as well as president and co-founder of the New England Skeptical Society. This is a guy that went on Dr Oz to tell the guy that nearly everything that comes out of his (Dr Oz's) mouth is pure crap. If he says that there might be something to it and it deserves further research, my money would be on ASMR being a legitimate thing. However, I do not ever see that research happening. Unlike something like migraines, there is no real downside to ASMR.

 

[Sans Souci]

The Wikepedia article sited has some quotes in it from Dr Steven Novella. The quotes seem to come from this particular article. Dr Novella is a clinical neurologist and assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine, but more importantly he is a very prominent figure in the skeptical movement. He is the host of Skeptics Guide to the Universe (one of the most popular critical thinking/science/skeptical podcasts) as well as president and co-founder of the New England Skeptical Society. This is a guy that went on Dr Oz to tell the guy that nearly everything that comes out of his (Dr Oz's) mouth is pure crap. If he says that there might be something to it and it deserves further research, my money would be on ASMR being a legitimate thing. However, I do not ever see that research happening. Unlike something like migraines, there is no real downside to ASMR.

Interesting article (the Skeptic Blog).

It's one of those things that I thought happened to everyone, I never thought anything about it. I just think it is more prevalent than people think. I don't think it is that unusual to get goosebumps/tingles/hair at the back of one's standing from certain stimuli. Have you ever been moved by a song? "On My Own" from Les Miz makes my head tingle and makes my hair stand on end! If I could, I would pay someone to brush my hair all day.

When I first heard this had a name, I did I cursory search. For whatever reason, it seems a lot of the video stimuli is created by women for men.

 

[Master Yoda]

Interesting article (the Skeptic Blog).

It's one of those things that I thought happened to everyone, I never thought anything about it. I just think it is more prevalent than people think. I don't think it is that unusual to get goosebumps/tingles/hair at the back of one's standing from certain stimuli. Have you ever been moved by a song? "On My Own" from Les Miz makes my head tingle and makes my hair stand on end! If I could, I would pay someone to brush my hair all day.

When I first heard this had a name, I did I cursory search. For whatever reason, it seems a lot of the video stimuli is created by women for men.

I think this ASMR is like any other rare medical mystery. In the early stages it seems like the available information 60% psudoscience 30% just plain made up and 10% fact. Right now about the closest thing to fact with ASMR is it does seem to exist.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

No. I have enough weird stuff with my body, no more please. Asthma, migraines, RLS, had to have my tonsils out and bled three days later when I was 13, dyspraxia, anything else?

 

[neoshinok]

I've enjoyed reading these, thanks for commenting. I'm so thankful this has begun a trend amongst a community of people who have created somewhat of an artform through ASMR a/v recordings.
It's interesting to hear different peoples' take on it, from those who have no idea what we're talking about to those who experience ASMR in different ways and to different extremes. I've heard others say music can evoke the sensation for them, for me it is mostly through certain speaking voices or textile sounds.
To bring Disney into the topic, I always got the effect from the binaural recordings found in Rafiki's Planet Watch and the (now closed I believe) booths in the soundroom connected to Sounds Dangerous.
I read about a group of undergrads at Dartmouth trying to get a grant to perform fMRI tests on people being exposed to ASMR media, hopefully it happens and they can gain some data.