[Science of ASMR – researcher interviews]

Researcher studies the effects of ASMR on studying and learning

/ Dr. Richard / 3 Comments

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityDr. Franziska Apprich received her Ph.D. in Media and Business from Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland and is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication & Media Studies at Canadian University Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

She has recently been researching and publishing about several aspects of ASMR, including the benefits of ASMR in education.

Her investigations into ASMR were reviewed by the Venus International Foundation and resulted in her winning the Outstanding Scientist Award from the organization.

Continue reading →

Meet the researchers who published the first biological study about ASMR-sensitive individuals

/ Dr. Richard / 8 Comments

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityBeverley “Bev” Fredborg recently received her B.Sc. degree in Biopsychology from the University of Winnipeg and will soon be starting a Master’s degree program in Clinical Psychology at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.

She is currently a research assistant with Dr. Stephen Smith, an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Winnipeg.

I initially interviewed this duo in July of 2015 when they began to work together on an ASMR survey project.

And now I am fortunate to do another interview with them about their very recent and exciting ASMR research publication involving fMRI.

Continue reading →

Go to Tingle Town to record your ASMR sensations

/ Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityMatthew White is a freelance web developer residing in the United Kingdom.  He has received his BSc degree in Web Systems & Technology and his MSc degree in Smart Systems & Technology from the University of Bournemouth, UK.

Matthew has also created his own town, called Tingle Town.

Well, actually Tingle Town is an interactive website which allows visitors to watch ASMR videos and record the precise moments when their ASMR is triggered.

It is dead simple to use; viewers just press and hold an on-screen button whenever they feel tingles.  The data is shown as a line graph directly under each video and the data set for each video can also be downloaded.

Matthew’s idea and execution are brilliant – and the data being collected is going to be very helpful to understanding the specific relationship between triggers and tingles.

In my interview with Matthew he shares his inspiration to create Tingle Town, his challenges with the creation of Tingle Town, the potential value of Tingle Town for scientists and seekers of tingles alike, and more.

Continue reading →

Undergraduate student researching ASMR, flow states, and highly sensitive person traits

/ Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityAnna Zajac is an undergraduate student at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland.  She is in her final year as a Psychology Major and is working as a research assistant at her university.

In addition, she is an intern at Sensum Co., a marketing research company which specializes in neuromarketing.

Anna has teamed up with Dr. Jonathan Rolison to do her senior dissertation thesis on ASMR.  She has decided to apply her research skills and computer software experience to investigate the relationship of ASMR with flow states and highly sensitive person traits.

In my interview with Anna she shares her inspiration for doing a research project on ASMR, the objectives of her project, advice to others considering doing research on ASMR, and more.

Below are my questions in bold, her replies in italics, and links to learn more about her and her thesis supervisor. Continue reading →

Dr. Diego Garro provides a translated explanation of the first EEG study of ASMR

/ Dr. Richard / 2 Comments

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityAlejandro Navarro Expósito recently finished his undergraduate thesis at the University of Almeria in Spain and made his dissertation publicly available.

His dissertation is titled, “Neuropsychological and neurophysiological characterization of a phenomenon called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR)” and was completed under the mentorship of the faculty member, Dr. Inmaculada Cubero Talavera.

Alejandro focused his research on measuring the electrical brain activity of a woman experiencing ASMR.  He measured her brain activity using an electroencephalogram (EEG).

The abstract of his dissertation is in English, but the remainder is in Spanish.

Fortunately for non-Spanish speakers, Dr. Diego Garro wrote a summary of Alejandro’s dissertation in English.

Continue reading →

How do the speech patterns of ASMR artists compare to Bob Ross, Bill O’Reilly, and Geraldo Rivera?

/ Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityGordon McGladdery is a professional composer and sound designer living in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada.

He has his Bachelor of Arts in English literature from University of Victoria in Canada and an additional diploma in Sound Design for Visual Media from the Vancouver Film School.

Gordon first learned about ASMR in 2012 and immediately created his own research project.

He analyzed the speech patterns of several ASMR artists (GentleWhispering, VeniVidiVulpes, AppreciateASMR, and others) and compared them to the speech patterns of others (Bob Ross, Bill O’Reilly, Geraldo Rivera, and others).

He initially shared his findings with the ASMR community in an ASMR subreddit thread.

In my interview with Gordon he shares how he first learned about ASMR, the objectives of his study, his ideas about further analysis that could be done on ASMR-related audio, his favorite ASMR artist, and more.

Below are my questions in bold and his replies in italics.

Immediately following the interview is Gordon’s detailed description of how he did his analysis and his data findings.

The post concludes with a podcast Gordon created about his study, as well as, links to his initial ASMR subreddit post, to his spreadsheet of the speech pattern data, to his website, to his musical compositions, and more.

Continue reading →

Update on Bryson Lochte and his MRI study on ASMR

/ Dr. Richard / 4 Comments

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityIn 2012, Bryson Lochte selected ASMR as his research topic for his undergraduate Senior Honors Thesis at Dartmouth College.  He chose to investigate the effects of ASMR videos on the brain by using fMRI analysis.

fMRI stands for functional magnetic resonance imaging and reveals changes in the blood flow to specific areas of the brain.  His project’s goal was to demonstrate which areas of the brain show increased activity while participants watched ASMR videos.

In February of 2013 Bryson posted a thread on the ASMR subreddit website requesting volunteers for his research project.  He completed his thesis by May and submitted the results to the Dartmouth College Library Catalog.

In November, 2013 Bryson posted on the ASMR subreddit site that he would not be able to publicly release a copy of his thesis until his data was published.

Bryson graduated from Dartmouth College in 2013 with his undergraduate degree in Neuroscience.  He is currently a medical student at the University of California, San Diego.

In my interview with Bryson he shares an update on his undergraduate thesis data, his inspiration for delving into ASMR research, his current ASMR research project, his insights into the biology of ASMR, advice for those researching ASMR, and more.

Below are my questions in bold, his replies in italics, and links to his website, his LinkedIn page, and his original ASMR subreddit post.

Continue reading →

*Participate now in research survey about ASMR and misophonia*

/ Dr. Richard / 5 Comments

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityDr. Tammy Dempster has her BSc in Psychology and her Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuropsychology.  She is currently researching ASMR and misophonia with colleagues at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK.

About a year ago she first learned about ASMR and quickly became fascinated in the topic.  She has now created an online research survey to begin collecting data to help progress the understanding of ASMR and to help guide further ASMR research projects.

In my interview with Dr. Dempster she shares how she first learned about ASMR, the objectives of her research study, some preliminary trends in the data collected so far, and more.

Below are my questions in bold, her replies in italics, and a link to her online research survey so you may participate.

Continue reading →

*Participate now in research survey about ASMR and Personality Traits*

/ Dr. Richard / 1 Comment

ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityBeverley “Bev” Fredborg recently received her B.Sc. degree in Biopsychology from the University of Winnipeg in Canada. As part of a summer project, she is continuing an ASMR research project about personality traits which she was involved with as an undergraduate student.

I’ve reported on several students working on ASMR research projects previously, but this one has two important differences which demonstrate the progress of ASMR research.

Continue reading →

Postdoctoral researcher at King’s College investigating the online culture of ASMR

/ Dr. Richard / Leave a comment

Dr. Rob Gallagher is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of English at King’s College in London. He has his Ph.D. in Humanities and Cultural Studies and is involved with a group research project investigating the influence of the internet on identities.

Dr. Gallagher is specifically looking into how the culture and language of ASMR developed, how people integrate ASMR experiences into their online identities, and how those who feel “tingles’ describe their experience.

Dr. Gallagher explains how interviewing ASMR artists gave him great insight into the art of ASMR, gives examples of how the media and academics approach ASMR differently, and shares information about a forthcoming podcast about ASMR.

Below are my questions in bold, followed by his replies in italics.

Continue reading →