Sue Dorrens, founder of the “I Love ASMR” facebook page asked me a question related to ASMR videos.
She wondered why our brains perceive a fake stimulus as a real stimulus.
In particular, she wondered why someone can watch a video of someone pretending to touch their head (e.g., hair salon role-play or facial massage role-play) and then have a relaxing response as if someone actually had touched their head.
This is a great question and I have three possible explanations.
ASMR University 