If you’ve stumbled upon the incredibly bizarre but wildly popular world of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos on Youtube, you’ll have probably wondered whether the strange tingling effects the videos induce in some people can have any real benefits.
If you’re only just learning about the phenomenon, check out this explainer I wrote on it a couple of years ago over at New Scientist and check out some of the clips on YouTube for yourself. ASMR videos tend to leave people divided, some find the videos relaxing and pleasurable, and others find them deeply unpleasant like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Now researchers have measured for the first time the effects of ASMR on people who experience it and found that the videos do indeed have an impact, reducing heart rate and increasing skin conductance levels, but only in those who say they experience the phenomenon.
Interestingly the size of the reduction in heart rate was greater than has sometimes been observed in mindfulness interventions for anxiety, implying that the reduction in heart rate may have practical significance. An obvious limitation of the research however is whether the participants who experience ASMR experienced physiological changes because they expected to have this reaction, while the non-ASMR participants would have had no such expectations. That will be a question for future research to answer.
See below for a video from the researchers at the University of Sheffield:
By Simon Oxenham. Find me on Twitter, Facebook and subscribe to weekly email updates on my posts. Don't forget to upvote and resteem. Image Source: University of Sheffield.
