Is research being done on ASMR?

Yes, but most reports seem to be anecdotal and/or are reports of individuals intending to do research.

I have tried to flush out some researchers currently doing research on ASMR but have failed so far to connect with anyone.

This does not mean there are not any researchers.

It mostly means there are very few scientists doing research on ASMR, and more importantly, it means that I need to try a lot harder.

Has anyone completed research on ASMR?

I know of at least one example.

Bryson C. Lochte’s dissertation: “Touched through a screen : putative neural correlates of autonomous sensory meridian response”

His dissertation is available in Dartmouth College Library.

I have been unable to directly access his work through the internet, and this may be because he is in the process of publishing his dissertation.

It is often important for scientists to publish their methods and data prior to allowing others to view their data.  This is important for at least two reasons.

The first reason is that when research findings are submitted to a journal for publication they go through a rigorous peer review to make sure the methods, data, and interpretations of the data are appropriate.

The second reason is to prevent someone else from quickly copying the methods, reproducing the data, and publishing the astounding findings before the person whom actually completed the study first.

This is sometimes referred to as “being scooped”.  Yes, there actually are some cool terms in science.

Where can published research studies about ASMR be found?

Beats me.  But I do know where they can’t be found.

They can’t be found on the top resource for finding publications related to life sciences and biomedical topics; PubMed.

Pubmed is a search engine which indexes most of the world’s biomedical journals.  This includes at least 5,500 journals with more added on a regular basis.

Want to learn about the latest research on impaired sleep, dysfunctional stress, and/or excessive sadness?  Just type in “insomnia”, “anxiety”, and/or “depression”.  And set aside the rest of your life to read through all of the results.

Want to learn about ASMR?  Just type in “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response” and set aside 15 minutes to read the one result.

Yes, one result.  What about typing in “ASMR”?

You will get many more results for other things that use the acronym ASMR, but only one of those publications will be about “our” ASMR.

That one publication is titled, “‘It feels good to be measured’: clinical role-play, Walker Percy, and the tingles.” by Nitin K. Ahuja, published in the Perspectives of Biology and Medicine journal in 2013.

It is a very interesting and well written perspective about ASMR experiences related to clinical interactions and a novel by a physician-writer.

But it is not a typical published research study with quantitative biomedical data about ASMR.

So let’s mark this date: July 25, 2014.

Number of publications in the PubMed database about ASMR equals 1.

Accolades to Nitin.

Let’s revisit this count in about a year or so.

And let’s hope Nitin gains a lot of company.

Click HERE to search on any biomedical topic with PubMed, but don’t expect to find much about Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.

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This post brought to you by the ASMR University.  A site with the mission of increasing the awareness, understanding, and research of the Art and Science of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.