Study On The Emotional Regulation Of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response And Its Neural Mechanism

1 Background and ObjectiveStress plays an important role in the development of many physical and mental diseases,and thus reducing mental stress is an effective way to maintain mental health.Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response(ASMR)is a kind of special sensory-emotion experience characterized by involuntary tingling sensation that originates in the head and often extends down to limbs and back.The sensation is accompanied by feelings of relaxation and pleasure,and thus ASMR is used to deal with stress.Despite the health benefits of using ASMR,its mechanism is still unclear.As a first step in understanding ASMR,the goal of the experiment 1 was to explore the electroencephalography(EEG)spectrum of the ASMR,which could provide an important bias for revealing the mechanism of ASMR from the perspective of electric neurophysiology.And the goal of experiment 2 was to observe the regulating effect of ASMR on mood and heart rate of stroke patients,which could provide an important basis for the application of ASMR in clinical practice2 MethodExperiment 1 We included 35 healthy subjects and the emotional response and EEG changes of the subjects during listening to three audios(ASMR audio,white noise and music)were recorded.Subjects were divided into ASMR group and control group depended on whether induced ASMR response by ASMR recording.Then we analyzed differences in subjective relaxation degree,delta rhythm,theta rhythm,alpha rhythm,beta rhythm and theta/beta ratio(TBR)between the two groups.Experiment 2 We included 21 stroke patients and the emotional response and EEG changes of the subjects during listening to three audios(ASMR audio,white noise and music)were recorded.Subjects were divided into ASMR group and control group depended on whether induced ASMR response by ASMR recording.Then we analyzed differences in subjective relaxation degree,heart rate(HR)and heart rate variability(HRV)between the two groups.3 ResultsExperiment 1 Of the 35 subjects,16 triggered ASMR response and 19 had no ASMR response(2 were excluded due to the bad quality of the EEG data),and finally 16 subjects were included in the ASMR group and 17 subjects were included in the control group.The results of statistical analysis show that:(1)Compared with the control group,ASMR audio promoted degree of relaxation in ASMR group,accompanied by enhancement of delta rhythms,theta rhythms and TBR;(2)Intra-group comparison in ASMR group showed that the ASMR audio and music induced higher degree of relaxation and theta rhythms power than white noise,which showed no difference between ASMR audio and music;(3)ASMR audio induced higher delta rhythms power and TBR than white noise and music;(4)Compared with ASMR audio and white noise,music enhance degree of relaxation and the theta rhythms power in control group.Experiment2 Since only two subjects trigger ASMR response,we didn't group subjects.(1)Compared to white noise,music increased subjective relaxation and heart rate variability,accompanied with decrease of heart rate;(2)Besides,music induced higher heart rate variability than ASMR audio.4 Conclusions4.1 ASMR can promote relaxation,accompanied with enhancement of delta rhythm power,theta rhythm power and TBR,indicating that ASMR may regulate individual emotions by guiding individuals into mindfulness4.2 Music can promote relaxation by regulating the function of the autonomic nervous system4.3 Stroke patients can also trigger ASMR,and future research can expand the sample size to explore the clinical value of ASMR.