Lee Hye Eun, Youk Sungbin, Lee Yoon Esther, Malik Musa, Weber René
Division of Communication & Media, College of Social Science, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, United States.
J Med Internet Res. 2025 Jul 29;27:e68586. doi: 10.2196/68586.
Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos have been increasingly popularized as accessible tools for stress relief. Despite widespread media coverage promoting their benefits, empirical research on the neural mechanisms underlying ASMR remains limited, particularly in general, unselected populations rather than self-identified ASMR responders.
This study aimed to investigate whether ASMR videos, when viewed in a naturalistic context by a general population sample, elicit consistent neural synchrony in stress-related brain regions and whether individual differences in perceived stress predict variability in neural responses.
The study included 72 young adults from South Korea. They participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment in which they viewed 3 ASMR videos selected through both manual and computational content analysis to reflect commonly consumed ASMR content. Intersubject correlation analysis was used to quantify the degree to which participants exhibited shared temporal patterns of neural activity across 16 a priori regions of interest implicated in stress processing. Intersubject representational similarity analysis assessed whether pairwise similarity in self-reported stress levels predicted similarity in neural synchrony. Exploratory analyses examined differences across videos, the impact of familiarity and prior ASMR use, and comparisons with a Mukbang control video.
Intersubject correlation analysis demonstrated that ASMR videos elicited significant neural synchrony in several brain regions (P<.05), including the insula and amygdala, although this synchrony varied across videos. No significant associations were identified between perceived stress and neural synchrony after correction for multiple comparisons (all P>.05). Exploratory comparisons with a Mukbang control video revealed no significant differences in stress-related neural synchrony between ASMR and non-ASMR content (all P>.05). Additional exploratory analyses examining familiarity with the content and prior ASMR viewership also did not show significant effects (all P>.05). Uncorrected analyses suggested weak trends that indicated greater neural variability among participants with differing stress levels, but these findings are preliminary.
The results do not provide conclusive evidence that ASMR videos consistently engage stress-related neural networks or that individual stress levels predict neural synchrony during ASMR video viewing. The findings highlight the substantial variability in ASMR engagement across content and individuals, and underscore the need for further research using multimodal physiological measures, larger samples, and stratified designs to identify which ASMR components and viewer characteristics are most relevant to potential stress-relief effects.
自主感觉经络反应（ASMR）视频作为一种易于获取的减压工具越来越受欢迎。尽管媒体广泛报道宣传了其益处，但关于ASMR背后神经机制的实证研究仍然有限，尤其是在一般的、未经过筛选的人群中，而非自我认定的ASMR反应者。
本研究旨在调查普通人群样本在自然情境下观看ASMR视频时，是否会在与压力相关的脑区引发一致的神经同步性，以及感知压力的个体差异是否能预测神经反应的变异性。
该研究纳入了72名来自韩国的年轻成年人。他们参与了一项功能磁共振成像实验，在实验中观看了通过人工和计算内容分析挑选出的3个ASMR视频，以反映常见的ASMR内容。采用受试者间相关性分析来量化参与者在涉及压力处理的16个先验感兴趣区域中表现出神经活动共享时间模式的程度。受试者间表征相似性分析评估了自我报告的压力水平中的两两相似性是否能预测神经同步性的相似性。探索性分析考察了不同视频之间的差异、熟悉程度和之前观看ASMR视频的影响，以及与吃播控制视频的比较。
受试者间相关性分析表明，ASMR视频在包括脑岛和杏仁核在内的几个脑区引发了显著的神经同步性（P<0.05），尽管这种同步性在不同视频之间有所不同。在进行多重比较校正后，未发现感知压力与神经同步性之间存在显著关联（所有P>0.05）。与吃播控制视频的探索性比较显示，ASMR和非ASMR内容在与压力相关的神经同步性方面没有显著差异（所有P>0.05）。其他考察对内容的熟悉程度和之前观看ASMR视频情况的探索性分析也未显示出显著影响（所有P>0.05）。未经校正的分析显示出微弱的趋势，表明不同压力水平的参与者之间神经变异性更大，但这些发现是初步的。
研究结果并未提供确凿证据表明ASMR视频能持续激活与压力相关的神经网络，也没有表明个体压力水平能预测观看ASMR视频期间的神经同步性。这些发现突出了ASMR参与在内容和个体之间的显著变异性，并强调需要使用多模态生理测量、更大样本和分层设计进行进一步研究，以确定哪些ASMR成分和观看者特征与潜在的减压效果最相关。
