The emerging science of careful whispers

It has been hypothesized that ASMR is a type of synaesthesia, which is a strange and varied phenomenon by which senses that are not typically linked together get smooshed together. Certain people with synaesthesia might, for example, automatically see the letter “A” as tinged with the colour red. Others associate sounds with colours, consistently and without meaning to. It has been hypothesized that maybe, just maybe, the part of the brain that processes sound is cross-activated in ASMR with its neighbour, the insula, which looks inwards and which helps us process emotional states. This would also tie ASMR to misophonia, often thought of as being on the same spectrum, just at the other extreme. Misophonia is a profound hatred of specific sounds like chewing or slurping. As scientists detect more and more physiological changes and brain function variation in people with ASMR, it’s becoming harder and harder to deny its reality. What it actually is and what it can do for people remain to be clarified and for that, as some researchers have argued, we will need studies that use multiple measurements of the ASMR state on multiple occasions and that confirm someone’s ASMR status by having them watch ASMR videos in the lab prior to the study to confirm that what they are experiencing is really ASMR. More consistency and rigour should yield more reliable results.
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