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I have written before about the neurology of synaesthesia, where a person’s senses blend, allowing them to see colours of music, or taste words as distinct flavours. Now it seems scientists are attempting to link it to another peculiarity of our brains.
This time, they are giving it the moniker of ASMR. In common terms, it is a sort of tingling in the brain. It is the state achieved when we reach a trance like calm; a feeling of euphoric tranquillity, and it is more common than originally thought.
There are a growing number of YouTube videos devoted to inducing this state, ranging from a woman slowly folding bath towels while whispering to herself, to watching painters go about their craft. Pretty much any repetitive task can trigger this state of bliss in some people, but give it a posh name of ‘autonomic sensory meridian response,’ or ASMR, and scientists have a new toy with which to play.
When you think about it, this is neither new, nor extraordinary. Give a child a calming activity, such as reading or petting a cat prior to bedtime, and they will drift into a sleepy state without kicking off at lights out. I often used a similar strategy with a classroom full of restless teenagers. After a lunchtime of manic chatter and flying around the breezy playgrounds, I had to employ cunning tactics to focus their minds for the afternoon lessons.