Abstract
Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a sensory phenomenon in which audio-visual stimuli evoke a tingling sensation and is accompanied by a feeling of calm and relaxation. Therefore, there has been an increasing interest in using stimuli that elicit ASMR in cognitive and clinical neuroscience studies. However, neurophysiological basis of sensory-emotional experiences evoked by ASMR remain largely unexplored. In this study, we investigated how functional connectivity is changed while watching ASMR video, compared to resting state, and assessed its potential association with affective state induced by ASMR. 28 subjects participated in fMRI experiment consisting of 2 sessions (resting-state and task of viewing ASMR-eliciting video). Using a seed-based correlation analysis, we found that functional connections between the posterior cingulate cortex, and superior/middle temporal gyri, cuneus, and lingual gyrus were significantly increased during ASMR compared to resting state. In addition, we found that with the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex seed region, functional connectivity of the medial prefrontal cortex was increased during ASMR condition, relative to resting state. These results imply that ASMR can be elicited and maintained by ongoing interaction between regional activity that are mainly involved in the mentalizing and self-referential processing. We also found that ASMR-induced affective state changes (high activation negative and high activation positive state) were negatively correlated with functional connectivity involved in visual information processing, suggesting that visual information processing in response to high arousal states can be weakened by ASMR-eliciting stimuli.
Highlights
Stress is common in everyday life, and is believed to affect individual health and happiness (Segerstrom and Miller, 2004; Cohen et al, 2007)
While the global maxima of the functional connectivity was located in the seed cluster, in both conditions of resting-state and Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), the significant hubs were reliably positioned in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), lLPC, rLPC, and superior/middle/inferior temporal gyri, and superior/inferior frontal gyri
We sought to test whether changes in functional connectivity within specific networks, including the default mode network (DMN), affective touch network, and self-/other-networks occurred during ASMR
Summary
Stress is common in everyday life, and is believed to affect individual health and happiness (Segerstrom and Miller, 2004; Cohen et al, 2007). ASMR Effects on Functional Connectivity meridian response (ASMR) videos have been widely used in the management of stress, by inducing relaxation and sleep (Barratt and Davis, 2015; Lee et al, 2019). ASMR is a sensory phenomenon in which individuals experience a tingling in the head and neck, in response to specific triggering audio and visual stimuli (Barratt and Davis, 2015). The ASMR triggers lead to response of psychologically pleasant effects such as feeling of relaxation, reduction in anxiety, and sleep induction (Barratt et al, 2017; Cash et al, 2018; Poerio et al, 2018). Lochte et al (2018) examined the brain activation during ASMR, and observed significant activation in regions of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, supplementary motor area, and insular cortex during ASMR condition, compared to the brain activity during resting state
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