ASMR: The Feeling Science Hasn't Explained Yet
- Thread starter lacktheknack
- Start date
OP here.lechat said:
My ASMR experiences have been entirely non-sexual. If anything, arousal wrecks the mindset I need to really feel them.
And while I've had the tingles since I was about six, they aren't nostalgic. I don't even remember what my triggers were at the time.
I'll clarify here: ASMR is most likely not a reflex [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflex] in the medical sense of the word, since it doesn't involve any kind of movement.RJ 17 said:The body's automatic reaction to some form of external stimuli...certainly sounds like a type of reflex to me.
ASMR also isn't always automatic, and it's definitely not guaranteed to happen. Concentration seems to have a significant effect on magnitude of response, and (for me, at least) constant repetition of the stimulus dulls or negates the response.
No, not really. Sexual stimulus feels distinctively different to me than ASMR. As for ASMR before puberty? Hell if I know. The ice crunching, maybe. If it happened with other stimuli, I doubt I paid much attention to it, figuring that it happened to other people too and wasn't something to worry about.lechat said:
There is a particular book-on-tape that I used to listen to just about every night before bed when I was little: The Tailor of Gloucester, read my Meryl Streep. I'll dig it up again and see if something in it triggers.
EDIT: So I found the recording [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF-qsn6w5Ls] on YouTube, and holy shit it set off so many triggers it's insane. While the responses weren't very palpable in my skin (unlike the ones from music or zip-ties or frosted glass), there is a very strong feeling of fuzzies--it's very much like I'm literally hugging my brain in happiness. Christ, I'm so happy right now that I'm crying. This is nuts.
EDIT EDIT: Now that I've calmed down a little, I'm pretty much convinced that that recording is the source of a huge number of my aural affinities: particular inflections and sounds in speech, particular timbres of voice, stringed instruments, Celtic and Gaelic instruments, particular note progressions, particular musical scales and modes, and probably more that my joy-addled brain can't think of right now.
No, not really. I mean, yeah, there are things like hearing old songs or recordings, but those are definitely the result of consciously recognizing those sounds and associating them with clear, comprehensive memories. Nothing like ASMR.
argh that just confuses meVuliev said:I'll clarify here: ASMR is most likely not a reflex [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflex] in the medical sense of the word, since it doesn't involve any kind of movement.RJ 17 said:The body's automatic reaction to some form of external stimuli...certainly sounds like a type of reflex to me.
ASMR also isn't always automatic, and it's definitely not guaranteed to happen. Concentration seems to have a significant effect on magnitude of response, and (for me, at least) constant repetition of the stimulus dulls or negates the response.
No, not really. Sexual stimulus feels distinctively different to me than ASMR. As for ASMR before puberty? Hell if I know. The ice crunching, maybe. If it happened with other stimuli, I doubt I paid much attention to it, figuring that it happened to other people too and wasn't something to worry about.lechat said:
There is a particular book-on-tape that I used to listen to just about every night before bed when I was little: The Tailor of Gloucester, read my Meryl Streep. I'll dig it up again and see if something in it triggers.
EDIT: So I found the recording [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF-qsn6w5Ls] on YouTube, and holy shit it set off so many triggers it's insane. While the responses weren't very palpable in my skin (unlike the ones from music or zip-ties or frosted glass), there is a very strong feeling of fuzzies--it's very much like I'm literally hugging my brain in happiness. Christ, I'm so happy right now that I'm crying. This is nuts.
EDIT EDIT: Now that I've calmed down a little, I'm pretty much convinced that that recording is the source of a huge number of my aural affinities: particular inflections and sounds in speech, particular timbres of voice, stringed instruments, Celtic and Gaelic instruments, particular note progressions, particular musical scales and modes, and probably more that my joy-addled brain can't think of right now.
No, not really. I mean, yeah, there are things like hearing old songs or recordings, but those are definitely the result of consciously recognizing those sounds and associating them with clear, comprehensive memories. Nothing like ASMR.
i was gonna say that subconscious memories of your child hood are stimulating the pleasure center in your brain leading to an ASMR response and your initial post confirms that but your last sentence completely contradicts it
try to look at it objectively. is it possible that the repetition of that early tape may be the source of your ASMR? the same question should be posed to anyone else with ASMR in this thread. is there a particularly notable instance in your childhood where you feel you were heavily influenced by a particular source of audio, more than likely without any symptoms of ASMR?
There's a difference between what you might call a "normal" memory and a sensory memory: "normal" memories are ones that involve higher cognitive processes like logic, language, pattern recognition, and so on, and a sensory memory is one that is directly tied to a particular sense felt by one of the senses. For example, I remember the time I put my uncle's car in neutral when it was on the steep driveway of the first house I lived in, with clear-ish visuals, distinct sounds of my parents shouting in panic (and me being like "why are they freaking out?"), the works of higher-level brain functions. But the Tailor recording is much different: while listening to the recording now prompts me to remember the sounds, I only process their meaning with the vocabulary of an adult. The sound of the particular inflections of Streep's pronunciations of the words, though, is what gives me fuzzies--the purely sensory memory of the sound of the words, of the music--nothing else.lechat said:
And that' what I'd been leaning toward even in my initial posts in the thread, that ASMR is tied to basic sensory memory, not higher-level ones.
This may have said in the thread already, but I kind of doubt this is anything more than a subdued anticipatory activation of the pilomotor reflex or something similar. In other words, its a mild arousal related to what would normally cause goose bumps or similar tingling.
Notice that most of the activators are things that, if done directly and/or in an intimate setting would cause that type of reaction. The brain is good at making these kinds of associations so when the stimuli is received it goes into preparation mode.
Its sort of like how, before anything actually occurs, if you are about to do something that normally results in sexual stimulation, whether it be grabbing that special bottle, seeing that look in your partner's eye, or simply positioning your desk chair for proper internet porn viewing, you can become tumescent.
Edit: And while my comparison example was sexual in nature, arousal itself doesn't have to be. All that is required is that your brain associates the video stimuli with some other stimuli that would cause an arousal reflex.
Notice that most of the activators are things that, if done directly and/or in an intimate setting would cause that type of reaction. The brain is good at making these kinds of associations so when the stimuli is received it goes into preparation mode.
Its sort of like how, before anything actually occurs, if you are about to do something that normally results in sexual stimulation, whether it be grabbing that special bottle, seeing that look in your partner's eye, or simply positioning your desk chair for proper internet porn viewing, you can become tumescent.
Edit: And while my comparison example was sexual in nature, arousal itself doesn't have to be. All that is required is that your brain associates the video stimuli with some other stimuli that would cause an arousal reflex.
Not sure where I lost you, I was just pointing out that arousal itself doesn't have to be related to sex in any way. It is simply a state, involving certain brain functions and hormonal releases, that increases the body's readiness to receive stimuli.Vuliev said:
If your brain has made an association between sound A and stimulus B, hearing sound A could trigger an arousal response (readiness to receive stimulus B) or simply full on activate response B in expectation of an imminent stimulus. Because of the way memory activation works, though, cued responses can vary drastically between different people. It all depends on the strength of the association.
On the other side of the same coin, things like whispering can illicit a similar response because our body enacts an arousal state when we try to focus on a particular stimuli. And yes, believe it or not, relaxation and concentration are much more similar and related than most people commonly view them as.
Now I cannot tell you why that particular voice causes such a reaction in you, I just don't know enough about you or your development. But it falls in line with what I am saying. Your brain has made a strong association with some aspect of that voice and an arousal response. Thus, when sufficient activation of the memory cue occurs, the response is felt.
Also, just a semantic aside, what you are talking about earlier is not sensory memory. Sensory memory is the very very short term memory from your senses that gets transferred to your working memory. What you are talking about is something closer to procedural memory but I don't know what the actual term for it is, if there is one.
Caveat emptor: Although I have some eductation in it and peripheral fields, I am in no way shape or form a psychologist. This is just my take from what I do know of cognitive theory. And, fwiw, I get a slight chill up my spine from some of these but not much else, so I can only base my view on my own relative physiology and compare that to other's claims.
Interesting...I feel it, sort of. Definitely not to the degree as other people in this thread, but it's there. It's a sort of cool/tingly/???? feeling at the base of my neck. The first video was like a 1, and the second was like a 2 or a 3. I'm not sure what that's a measure of, but whatever it's measuring, it's out of 10. The feeling is very similar to the light touch of fingers.
And speaking of fingers, the ones in that first video are the sexiest fingers I've seen in my life.
I've formed a rough hypothesis as to the origin of the sensation. It comes from sounds like tapping, scraping, whispering in particular, and more besides (I'm thinking of pouring water). I got the idea as I was listening to this second video.
What's the loudest part of a whisper? Mouth movement. The sound many people find creepy, or at least uncomfortable, of the lips and tongue moving. Louder speech obscures this sound. But most mics have a bad habit of picking up and even boosting those sounds, so they're stripped out by keeping your mouth away from the mic.
So it seems like these seemingly different sounds might of tapping, whispering, etc. might have common aural properties. Same frequency? Similar timbre?
I even have a possibility as to what it means. Some people have already said something like this, that it could tie back to...well, not sex or arousal, but intimacy. Of someone talking very close to you.
That's enough of that. My final thoughts are a) this is definitely an amazing sleeping aid, and b) I think it works better for me if the person on the other end isn't doing the ~whatever~ intentionally.
But I will keep this in mind. Actually I'll probably forget all about it, but I'll try to keep it in mind.
And speaking of fingers, the ones in that first video are the sexiest fingers I've seen in my life.
I've formed a rough hypothesis as to the origin of the sensation. It comes from sounds like tapping, scraping, whispering in particular, and more besides (I'm thinking of pouring water). I got the idea as I was listening to this second video.
What's the loudest part of a whisper? Mouth movement. The sound many people find creepy, or at least uncomfortable, of the lips and tongue moving. Louder speech obscures this sound. But most mics have a bad habit of picking up and even boosting those sounds, so they're stripped out by keeping your mouth away from the mic.
So it seems like these seemingly different sounds might of tapping, whispering, etc. might have common aural properties. Same frequency? Similar timbre?
I even have a possibility as to what it means. Some people have already said something like this, that it could tie back to...well, not sex or arousal, but intimacy. Of someone talking very close to you.
That's enough of that. My final thoughts are a) this is definitely an amazing sleeping aid, and b) I think it works better for me if the person on the other end isn't doing the ~whatever~ intentionally.
But I will keep this in mind. Actually I'll probably forget all about it, but I'll try to keep it in mind.
The videos did not do anything for me, but if I am thinking of the right feeling, I can trigger it pretty much at will. Other things can do it for me such as songs, some movie scenes, etc.
I honestly thought that sensation was normal. It's like the auditory equivalent of having someone run their fingers through your hair or give you a hand massage. Never really thought to put a name on it, but I guess it's natural to label things.
I think the feeling is close to sexual arousal in terms of brain function, but I'd also say it's distinct from it, despite possible potential for overlap. I'd equate it more to cuddling I suppose.
I think the feeling is close to sexual arousal in terms of brain function, but I'd also say it's distinct from it, despite possible potential for overlap. I'd equate it more to cuddling I suppose.
I get the sensation watching Japanese calligraphy and watching Bob Ross paint. Slow deliberate art makes me have this feeling. Not sure why. Its cool i can put a name to the feeling though.
Cool! I didn't get anything out of the video, sadly, BUT I have experienced that pleasant buzz many a times before, and I've learned most of my triggers.
The strangest I have is voices. A certain softness in a voice, not necessarily a whisper (although that helps too), sets off that little oxytocin-like tingle in my neck. I've only met a handful of people who have it. Music can at times do the same thing. I wonder if this thing is related to the hairs on your arm standing up when you hear a perfectly on-key singer.
The strangest I have is voices. A certain softness in a voice, not necessarily a whisper (although that helps too), sets off that little oxytocin-like tingle in my neck. I've only met a handful of people who have it. Music can at times do the same thing. I wonder if this thing is related to the hairs on your arm standing up when you hear a perfectly on-key singer.
You too? My personal favourite is the 3d Barber shop. It wasnt intentional but i got great enjoyment from it as ASMR.Sightless Wisdom said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IXm6SuUigI
Until you used the word audiophile i didnt really know what to call the feeling i get often from interesting soundscapes. I really enjoy them to the point where i re listen many times. Its cool to know its a thing.
Is... is there a problem?launchpadmcqwak said:
You seem stressed.
Maybe you should watch a video or two to help you relax.
<youtube=1xu7iaDT4ew>