Could the Tingling Sensation You Feel Be ASMR?

Muhammad Ali Khalidi, a professor of philosophy and cognitive science at York University in Toronto, recalls that he first experienced the tingling sensation when he was around 5 years old. Waiting after school for his parents to pick him up, an older gentleman -- perhaps a custodian -- who waited at the school until kids' rides arrived would talk in a gentle voice. "As far as I can recollect, he would speak in a kind of monotone way, and have this kind of gravelly voice, and it was very relaxing," Khalidi recalls.

Since his childhood, similar triggers, such as when a doctor was speaking quietly to him about his health while taking notes -- making scratching sounds in a notebook -- have induced the same pleasant tingly sensation running up and down his scalp as well as in his back and parts of his arms. He later recognized what he felt as ASMR, or autonomous sensory meridian response, while listening to the novelist Andrea Siegel describe her own experience with it on the podcast "This American Life."

Since Khalidi delivered a blog post about it last year for the American Philosophical Association, the internet and online social communities have been abuzz extolling its potential benefits, most widely as a mode of relaxation.

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Quite literally millions of videos on YouTube have been created for the express purpose of inducing ASMR, including the ever popular Gentle Whispering ASMR, notes a 2016 review of limited research on ASMR and frisson, a strong, pleasant tingling feeling induced in some by music. The review argues that the two mindfully induced sensory phenomena are interrelated. With ASMR -- which observers note, seems to be experienced by a small but still significant minority of the population -- the atypical response is usually first noticed in childhood. It may be triggered by crisp sounds, whispering and slow or repetitive movements, as research details in the review published last year in the International Journal of School and Educational Psychology.

"Some of the triggers involve somebody giving them close personal attention," says review lead author Marisa del Campo, a school psychologist at Natchaug Elementary School in Connecticut and a PhD student in school psychology at the University of Connecticut. The feeling could be brought on by a visit to the barber shop, touching hard objects like a comb or brush with fingernails -- as featured in some videos produced by "ASMR-tists," who specialize in making videos to help induce the sensation. Some people experience goosebumps as part of the sensation, del Campo notes.

There's a dearth of research into exactly how ASMR is experienced on a neurological level, or what sort of brain activity results from it. Instead, descriptions come solely from self-reports of those who say they experience it. But as del Campo and Thomas Kehle, professor of school psychology at the University of Connecticut, who co-authored the review on ASMR and frisson point out: It appears that both are induced or enhanced through the practice of mindfulness, which involves focusing attention on one's internal and external experiences in the present moment. As with mindfulness, where much more research has been done, the reported benefits extend from improved mood and reduced stress and alleviation of depression symptoms to decreased anxiety levels. That mindfulness, which del Campo and Kehle believe is integral to ASMR, as well as frisson -- and getting into that "flow state" -- can be very therapeutic, Kehle says.

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Some who experience ASMR, like Khalidi, say it can also help combat insomnia. And the benefits appear to persist after the tingling wears off. However, much remains unknown. A non-clinical concept, the term ASMR was first coined in 2010 by Jennifer Allen who started a Facebook group focused on ASMR. Only nonscientific descriptions exist since ASMR is solely self-reported. It hasn't been measured in a lab, for example, by neurological responses on a brain scan. That has led to no small degree of skepticism, as Khalidi notes, with some doubting the sensation really exists or is experienced in any sort of uniform way.

Enthusiasts have also called for research into the subject to better understand potential benefits -- and whether there are any drawbacks. One study found differences in personality traits between the people who experience ASMR and those who don't, del Campo notes: Those who do experience ASMR score higher in the traits of neuroticism and openness to experience (being willing to try new things), and then lower in agreeableness, conscientiousness and extraversion. "Neuroticism certainly is linked to depression," she says. However, del Campo, who wasn't involved in the research published in February in the journal Frontiers of Psychology, as well as study authors note study limitations. That includes a sample drawn from an online ASMR community who "may be more willing to disclose information about their ASMR experiences and may be more naturally 'open to experience' than the general population."

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Given the soft, intimate nature of a whispering interaction that can induce ASMR, for example, some also wonder whether it's stimulating in another way. "One natural response to all this is that there's something creepily sexual about it," Klalidi writes. "Take my word and that of fellow members of the 'ASMR community' that it's less about arousal than relaxation or 'zoning out,' even though there are some distant relations to porn, for instance, in the level of intimacy in some of the trigger videos, many of which seem to be made by attractive young women." Some confusion may arise based on how the sensation is described, like as a "headgasm," yet del Campo agrees it isn't about sex drive but about a desire to induce relaxation, among other benefits.

For the majority who don't experience ASMR, one additional takeaway is the proven benefits of mindfulness, in general. ASMR may yet be one more way to realize those, though a closer look is needed first. "I'd like to pin down -- and it shouldn't be too hard to do -- what's going on in the body. What's happening when people experience this? ... Is it indeed producing these kinds of benefits, such that it could be used as an intervention for increasing well-being?" del Campo asks. "Right now there really isn't enough data to do that."

Michael Schroeder is a health editor at U.S. News. He covers a wide array of topics ranging from cancer to depression and prevention to overtreatment. He's been reporting on health since 2005. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at mschroeder@usnews.com.