Emma Palmer-Cooper is a Researcher at the University of Southampton in the UK.
She is conducting a research project titled, “Unusual experiences and the association with metacognition.” This study includes unusual experiences such as ASMR.
Emma is looking for participants to take her online survey, which has been reviewed and approved by an Ethics Committee.
The survey is open to individuals who watch ASMR videos, are over 18 years of age, and have no personal or family history of psychosis.
Safiyya Mank is an undergraduate psychology student at Manchester Metropolitan University in Manchester, England and also a research assistant for an ASMR project.
Her project is titled, “An investigation into ASMR and sensory sensitivity” and she is seeking participants who are 18 years or older for this study (sensitivity to ASMR triggers is not necessary).
Participants will access an online survey, watch an ASMR video, and answer questions about their ability to experience ASMR and how they normally react to specific sensory stimuli.
The survey has been approved by the University’s ethics committee, shouldn’t take longer than 30 minutes, and will collect your replies anonymously.
The results of the study may be published in peer reviewed journals. Participants can obtain a full copy of the results of the research study by contacting the researcher.
She is being supervised by Dr. Thomas Hostler and Dr. Giulia Poerio, who published the first heart rate study about ASMR in 2018.
The survey closes soon, so click the link below to learn more or to participate if you are interested.
Alexsandra Kovacevich and David Huron at Ohio State University have published a research paper about the content and comments of ASMR videos.
Their paper is titled, “Two Studies of ASMR: The Relationship between ASMR and Music-Induced Frisson” and was published in Fall 2018 in the peer-reviewed journal, Empirical Musicology Review.
In this paper, the authors report the results of two studies. The first study analyzed the content of ASMR videos and the second study analyzed comments about ASMR videos.
Below is a summary of their paper, followed by links to the published manuscript, supplementary materials, and a commentary article.
I’m happy to share that I am one of the co-authors of the first published study to show brain activity during ASMR.
The study is titled, “An fMRI investigation of the neural correlates underlying the ASMR” and was published by Bryson Lochte, Sean Guillory, Craig Richard, and William Kelley in the journal BioImpacts on September 23, 2018.
One of the biggest questions about ASMR is, “What is happening in the brain?” Although this study doesn’t fully answer that question, it is the first data to provide some direct insights.
Participants quietly layed down in fMRI machines, watched ASMR videos, and their brains were scanned during moments of brain tingling – and then those brain images were compared to moments without brain tingling.
The brain regions that were strongly activated during ASMR were similar to those regions activated when humans, and other animals, perform soothing social behaviors – known as affiliative behaviors. Typical examples of affiliative behaviors include calmly sitting close to each other, touching each other gently, and mutual grooming.
So how exactly was this study done?
Daniella Cash, Laura Heisick, and Megan Papesh from Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in Baton Rouge, LA have published a research study about expectations and ASMR.
The study is titled aptly, “Expectancy effects in the ASMR” and was published August 22, 2018 in the journal PeerJ. Links to this paper and a follow up commentary paper are at the end of this article.
I’m often asked why only some individuals experience ASMR. The answer is that no one knows. Yet. The easiest answer could be that the response is dependent on a specific gene sequence – you either have it or you don’t.
But life is never that simple.
It is believed that experiencing ASMR is more likely to occur while being in a relaxing setting, having a calm mind, selecting a preferred trigger type and style, and even perhaps not being on specific drugs or medications which could interfere with ASMR.
What about the influence of life experiences, culture, or expectations? Particularly expectations. Expectations could be a part of the magic behind the placebo effect.
Could the placebo effect explain ASMR? Or what about vice versa? Maybe ASMR could explain the placebo affect in specific cases?
Visualize a clinician handing you a pill – that is a moment filled with personal attention, caring behaviors, a soft voice, and probably the light touch of their hand on yours, as well as, a reassuring hand on your back as you walk out of their office.
How about meeting with a therapist on a regular basis? A weekly dose of hyper-focused personal attention from a trained expert with a soft and steady voice – that is an ASMR recipe. If therapy sessions help you feel calmer, then is it the wisdom, the insights, the ASMR, or all of that which bring you serenity?
In this study, the authors investigated if expectations can affect ASMR – an important question indeed.
Beverley Fredborg, James Clark, and Stephen Smith have published another ASMR research study titled, “Mindfulness and ASMR.” The study was published August 7, 2018 in PeerJ.
The goal of this study was to investigate the potential relationships between ASMR and mindfulness.
In their introduction, they provide these descriptions of mindfulness:
The authors then highlight the similarities between mindfulness and ASMR:
These similarities definitely make one wonder if mindfulness is a form of ASMR, if ASMR is a form of mindfulness, or is there some other relationship?
The authors also teased out more data about ASMR and trigger preferences, age of onset, similarity to music chills, and frequency of using ASMR media to help with relaxation and sleeping.
This is the second ASMR research study published by Dr Agnieszka Janik McErlean (Bath Spa University, UK) and Dr Michael Banissy (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK).
Their prior study was titled, “Assessing individual variation in personality and empathy traits in self-reported ASMR” and was published March 30, 2017 in the journal Multisensory Research.
Their latest study is titled, “Increased misophonia in self-reported ASMR” and was published August 6, 2018 in the journal PeerJ.
Misophonia is common in discussions about ASMR because some people greatly enjoy ASMR trigger sounds like whispering, mouth sounds, and chewing but others will respond to those same sounds with annoyance, anger, or anxiety (misophonia).
Curiously, some people who report experiencing ASMR to some triggers also report experiencing misophonia to other triggers. This hyper-sensitivity to sounds has people often wondering if people who experience ASMR are more likely to also experience misophonia.
Dr Agnieszka Janik McErlean is the lead author of the publication, “Assessing individual variation in personality and empathy traits in self-Reported Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.”
At the time of the publication she was a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at James Cook University in Singapore. In January 2018, she will be a Senior Lecturer in the Dept of Psychology at Bath Spa University in the UK.
Dr Janik McErlean co-authored the paper with Dr Michael Banissy and the research was published March 30, 2017 in the journal Multisensory Research.
In my interview with Dr Janik McErlean she shares how she became interested in researching ASMR, the goals and methods of her study, the insights she uncovered about ASMR triggers, and her findings about the personality and empathy traits of ASMR responders.
This is the fourth peer-reviewed research study about ASMR. It was published March 30, 2017 in the journal Multisensory Research.
The research paper is titled, “Assessing individual variation in personality and empathy traits in self-Reported Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response”.
How many peer-reviewed research publications about ASMR currently exist? The answer is three.
I’ve created this post as a quick resource for anyone looking to learn more about these publications.
Below are the details for each publication, along with links to each publication, summaries of the data, interviews with the authors, and podcast episodes about each publication.
ASMR University 