‘Weird sounds feel good‘ was the subject matter on a medical forum thread discussion where people described a ‘tingling’ sensation that started at the top of their head and radiated down their spines upon hearing certain soft sounds. Such as monotone voices or whispering.
Some people said ‘from listening to old people talk’
The term ASMR, Autonomous sensory meridian response, was coined by Jennifer Allen in one of these forum threads in 2010.
But ASMR or ‘brain tingles’ videos were already getting popular years before they were named ASMR.
There were already many gentle whispering videos on YouTube made to induce the ‘brain tingles’
Peer reviewed studies on ASMR started in 2015. The brain tingle itself was the focus of many studies, identifying which sounds were most likely to cause tingles.
But many other studies were interested in the relaxing effects of ASMR content regardless of experiencing the brain tingle.
A 2023 study published in ‘frontiers of neuroscience’ ‘Brain function effects of ASMR video viewing’ used an fMRI to monitor brain activity during both watching and listening to ASMR content and listening only.
The study used thirty individuals over the age of nineteen that had never experienced a brain tingle.
Their brain activity was monitored and they were given a questionnaire to determine their mood and how relaxed they felt.
The study concluded that there was a very clear difference between watching and listening to ASMR versus listening only in terms of brain activity.
When watching and listening to ASMR there was high activity in both the middle frontal gyrus and the nucleus accumbens. The part of the brain responsible for shifting attention and the reward center of the brain.
But when listening only the activity was in the bilateral insular cortices. The empathy and sensory part of the brain.
The questionnaire however revealed no differences in mood with watching and listening versus only listening.
The relaxing effects of ASMR content went under further study in 2025
‘More relaxing than nature? The impact of ASMR content on psychological and physiological measures of parasympathetic activity’
This study was interested in reducing psychological stress and posed the question that ASMR might be more effective than nature.
Viewing and listening to nature has already been proven to reduce psychological stress by restoring attentional resources.
ASMR are the sounds of social bonding. The tingle some feel from watching ASMR is a ‘social tingle’.
The study concluded that the stimuli of social bonding was in fact more relaxing than the stimuli of nature.
I take that to mean that social bonding is a stronger indication of safety for a human being than environment. But that is simply my take away.
The other studies I read in my attempt to understand ASMR and how it affects the brain were on the areas of the brain that showed the most activity.
The middle frontal gyrus I read a study titled ‘A role of right middle frontal gyrus in reorienting of attention: a case study’
This study referred to the MGF as a gateway between top down thinking and bottom up feeling.
Another study ‘transcranial magnetic stimulation on the left middle frontal gyrus’ reported that when you disrupt the MGF people become more aware of social punishments.
On the nucleus accumbens I read the study ‘anticipation of increasing monetary reward selectively recruits nucleus accumbens’ which noted that the NA is only active when anticipating reward but is not active when anticipating punishment.
The other study on the NA I read was ‘the role of the nucleus accumbens shell in the mediation of the reinforcing properties of safety signal in free operant avoidance: dopamine dependent inhibitory effects of d-amphetamine’
That was a mouthful. But in simpler terms the NA plays a big role in reinforcing safety signals. When we feel we are in a safe environment we avoid (ignore) negative emotions.
The last study on I read on the NA was ‘the nucleus accumbens: mechanisms of addiction across drug classes reflect the importance of glutamate homeostasis’
That was a fun one. I actually studied glutamate in the brain and how it works.
But basically the nucleus accumbens drives addiction.
The studies I read on the bilateral insular cortices: ‘human insula neurons respond to simple sounds during passive listening’
This study concluded that simple auditory sounds like clicks and tones activate the insula even during passive listening.
From the paper ‘hearing and emotion’ it discussed how we process emotion largely from sound.
And how damage to the insula can cause sound agnosia. Which means the hearing hasn’t been damaged but the ability to recognize sounds has been. With sound agnosia a person could hear the doorbell ring but not be able to identify it as a doorbell.
Jess lanai 