It sounds a bit dubious, but a woman garnered 39 million views on a video released last year just by eating jelly pudding on camera. Another content creator achieved a similar feat by eating honeycomb. If food videos are not your thing, you can watch soaps and lipsticks getting sliced for hours, or listen to someone speaking in soft, caressing whispers. In all these seemingly disparate videos, there is one factor in common — they all trigger ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response).
What is ASMR?
ASMR is a sensory phenomenon in which audio-visual stimuli evoke a tingling sensation and is accompanied by a feeling of calm and relaxation, says Dr Milan Balakrishnan, consultant psychiatrist at Masina Hospital in Mumbai. Today, millions watch these videos that provide a window of calm amid the overstimulating digital world. So what does ASMR feel like? “Remember the soothing effect you feel when someone runs their fingers down your hair and the extreme calmness that follows? ASMR sensations are akin to that. When we hear a soothing voice (of a singer, or during meditation), the calmness and the intrinsic peace that follows is what ASMR feels like,” explains Sushree Sahu, psychologist and counselling head at Humanising Lives.
According to ASMR University, there may be about 500,000 ASMR channels (by ASMRtists) and 25 million ASMR videos on YouTube in 2022.
Triggers
“Anything that stimulates our sensory modalities — visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory — can be potential triggers for ASMR. A soothing piece of music, the sight of your loving grandparent, a romantic scene on Netflix, etc,” says Sushree. Dr Balakrishnan adds that ASMR triggers are all about the context. “Context sets the stage for experiencing ASMR. You are most likely to experience ASMR when a helpful and kind person is giving you calm, focused attention. This kind person may be a clinician, teacher, hairdresser, parent, best friend, partner, or even someone you just met. The key aspects of this interaction are that you trust this person, feel safe, and they are doing something helpful or interesting,” he says.
Gentleness and safety are integral parts of triggers for ASMR. “Triggers are the specific stimuli that occur during these interactions. These triggers can be the other person’s voice, the sounds they create, their touch, or the way they move their hands. The most important aspect of these triggers is that they are gentle and non-threatening. In other words, they are speaking softly, creating low-volume sounds, touching you lightly and appropriately, and moving their hands smoothly, slowly, and predictably,” explains Dr Balakrishnan. Perhaps, this explains the popularity of videos that feature sounds of soap suds, or just of a bubble wrap getting popped.
Origins in the brain
Research is still being carried out on the part of the brain involved in producing the unique tingling and relaxing sensations of ASMR. “Neurophysiological basis of sensory-emotional experiences evoked by ASMR remains largely unexplored,” says Dr Balakrishnan. “Studies found that in the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) seed region, functional connectivity of the medial prefrontal cortex was increased during ASMR condition. ASMR videos tend to produce a sense of relaxation.”
Is it sexual?
Many feel that ASMR is similar to sexual arousal, but a distinct link between the two is yet to be established. However, it is not difficult to understand why the two sensations have overlapping characteristics. “Happy hormones like dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins that are released during sexual activity are the ones released during ASMR stimuli. Secondly, sexual activities are accompanied by components that load on our sensory modalities like a pleasant sight, a pleasant sexual sound, or even touch,” says Sushree Sahu.
ASMR can create an environment that can lead to arousal. “While there isn’t a particularly large body of existing research on the connection between ASMR and sex, experts agree that for those who enjoy it and find it relaxing, it certainly has the potential to create an environment that is conducive for arousal. The relaxation and stimulation can lead to more intimacy and pleasure during sex,” explains Dr Balakrishnan.
A report says that more and more people watched ASMR videos during the pandemic. The NME website said that hours of ASMR watched per day increased by 38% between May and June last year. Recently, the Texas Health Department in the United States made an ASMR video reminding everyone to take Covid vaccines.
Regardless of what research says, these videos provide a harmless way to be mindful and be present in the moment, which is a difficult feat to achieve in the digital space.
