Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works by brain stuff, I'm Christian Sager. When people start throwing around the term brain orgasm, it definitely gets your attention even more than brain stuff. Right. But that's just one way that autonomous sensory meridian response or a s MR has captured the interest of one corner of the Internet. Another is a s MRS effect itself. It's described by many as a satisfying tingle running from the top of your head down
your spine. It causes a variety of sensory stimuli, from the sound of whispering to the sight of someone combing their own hair. And I have to admit I experienced it myself. And look, if it's true, who doesn't want to feel good and relaxed. So let's examine what a s MR is, what triggers it, how science responds to it, and how it's online community works. Maybe then we'll get
a little closer to unraveling its mystery. The actual term a s MR was coined by healthcare I t professional Jen Allen, who also started a research institute dedicated to analyzing the euphoric phenomenon. The orgasm association isn't necessarily sexual, but a s MR does feel comparably good. Each individual responds to sensory triggers differently, but in general, a s
MR is described as meditative and soothing. Trigger examples include light sounds of crinkling, a person whispering slowly, or someone completing a task with personal attention like painting or cutting hair. A s MR is described much like synastasia, the phenomenon where one sense produces the experience of another, like when you hear a musical note as a color or you see a letter as a flavor. The merger of these
senses is extreme compared to normal sensations. Not everyone can experience it, and like cinnastasia a few years back, a s m are 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 or not it should even have a Wikipedia entry. Research on a s MR is still in its infancy, but neuroscientists Stephen Novella believes it likely has real neurological causes that could potentially
be miniature seizures or hardwired evolutionary reactions. Wow Other people theorize that dopamine or saratonin are involved, or that it's a bonding phenomenon connected to mother child nurturing releasing the hormone oxytocin. The sound of a young woman's calm, reassuring voice obviously reminds us of our ideal infancy, So this seems reasonable. If you've never experienced a SMR and want to try it out, I've got good news. There is
a whole community online primarily cultivated by whisperer videos. Are people called evokers record a s m R 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 a three D microphone, the triggers intensify, providing an auditory experience that moves up close and personal.
This isn't just a niche group either. Hundreds of evokers are uploading thousands of videos to help their viewers relax. Some hope to lull insomniacs to sleep, while others simply purse their lips provocatively and say things like I would like to blow smoke into you. There are mail evokers too, but they're rarely welcomed by the A s m R community, possibly due to the 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 know for its sympathetic humanitarians. Read the comments on any a sm R video and you'll see battles play out between trolls and defenders of the host. In a prolific evoker's YouTube account was actually hacked to portray her as a pedophile,
eventually driving her away from the community. Despite this incident, the a s m R community is mostly democratic and provides a shared experience for those who can feel the tingle of the brain work as check out the brain stuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.