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- Hi I'm Cristen from Stuff Mom Never Told You.
Now when people start throwing around the term brain orgasm,
it definitely gets more attention than say, brain stuff,
and that's one way that autonomous sensory meridian response
or ASMR has captured the interest
of one growing corner of the internet.
Another of ASMR's effect itself is described by many
as a satisfying tingle that runs from the top of your head
down your spine,
and its cause is a variety of sensory stimuli,
from the sound of whispering
to the sight of someone combing their own hair.
And side note folks,
I do personally experience ASMRs so,
even if you don't,
I can attest to the fact that at least for this brain
it does orgasm sometimes, neurologically speaking.
So let's examine what ASMR is,
what triggers it, how science responds to it,
and how its online community works.
Now the actual term ASMR was coined by
healthcare IT professional Jenn Allen,
who also started a research institute dedicated to analyzing
this euphoric phenomenon.
The orgasm association is not, I repeat,
not necessarily sexual, but ASMR does feel comparably good.
Each individual responds to sensory triggers differently,
but in general ASMR is described as meditative and soothing.
Trigger examples include, for instance,
light sounds of crinkling, a person whispering slowly,
or someone completing a task with personal attention
like painting or cutting hair
or my personal favorite, giving a cranial nerve examination.
ASMR is described much like synesthesia,
the phenomenon where one sense
produces the experience of another.
And like synesthesia a few years back,
ASMR is having trouble getting recognition
in the scientific community.
In fact, because the term isn't medically recognized,
there's been a prolonged battle over whether it should even
have a Wikipedia entry.
Research on ASMR is still in its infancy,
but neuroscientist Steven Novella believes it likely
has real neurological causes
that could potentially be miniature seizures
or hard-wired evolutionary reactions.
Other people theorize that dopamine or serotonin
are involved, or that it's a bonding phenomenon
connected to mother-child nurturing,
releasing the hormone oxytocin.
Now if you've never experienced ASMR
and want to give it a try, I've got good news.
There's a whole community online primarily cultivated
by whisper videos where people called evokers
record ASMR triggers by speaking softly
and making sounds with objects like feathers, brushes,
and plastic bags.
Evokers tend to be young women who often play roles like
travel agents, hairdressers, or optometrists.
When an evoker uses the 3D microphone,
the triggers intensify, providing an auditory experience
that moves up close and personal.
And this isn't just a niche group either.
Hundreds of evokers are uploading thousands of videos
to help their viewers relax.
There are male evokers too, but they're rarely welcomed
by the ASMR community, possibly due to cultural expectations
of gender roles and nurturing,
but that's a double-edged sword when the most popular videos
feature young women on YouTube,
not exactly shown for its sympathetic humanitarians.
Read the comments on any ASMR video, or even this one,
and you'll see battles play out between trolls
and the defenders of a host.
But despite this incident, the ASMR community
is mostly democratic and provides a shared experience
for those like me who can feel
the tingle of the brain orgasm.
Now once you've dipped your toe in the ASMR video pool,
come on back and tell us how you felt afterward.
If anything it'll make you realize just how loud
everything else on the internet is.
Or if you're like me and already experience ASMR,
let me know what your triggers are in the comments below.
Cranial nerve exam, what what?
Where y'all at?
Right?
(cosmic synth hum)