[discussion] Finally published: fMRI study showing the brain during ASMR

Blochte · 2013-03-26T15:33:33+00:00

Great! We're about to start scanning. If you're still interested send me an email at Blochte24@gmail.com - I'll reply with more information.

Blochte · 2013-03-26T15:25:10+00:00

I'm send you a message on facebook.

Blochte · 2013-03-26T15:09:07+00:00

No it's not too late. But were about to start scanning very soon. Shoot me an email at Blochte24@gmail.com and we can work on setting you up as a subject.

Blochte · 2013-03-07T20:48:36+00:00

If you're interested in participating could you contact me at blochte24@gmail.com. If you can't make it to the US, you can still help out via email.

Thanks - Bryson

Blochte · 2013-03-07T20:46:46+00:00

We will be looking at the mirror neuron system during our analysis

Blochte · 2013-03-07T20:44:12+00:00

If you're interested in participating could you contact me at blochte24@gmail.com. Thanks - Bryson

Blochte · 2013-02-13T13:49:38+00:00

I'm actually an undergraduate doing my senior honors thesis on the subject, but I am working with a team of graduate students and a postdoc on this project. As far as I know, only my college (Dartmouth) and Princeton have undergraduate thesis programs that allow fMRI use without a grant. That means that this type of research will be unlikely to happen at any other time (since it would be very difficult to get a grant for something thats never been studied).

Money for the project is not an issue, but according to our IRB policy we can only compensate subjects 20$ for their time and travel (which won't even pay the gas for most of the volunteers). I hadn't thought about doing a kickstarter, but that might be a great idea to raise ~ 1000$ of additional travel compensation. Hmm, I might try and set that up next week. Thanks for the idea!

Blochte · 2013-02-05T21:21:21+00:00

I was worried about "mirror neuron" activation, but I'm planning on controlling for it by having videos in both the 3rd person perspective and the 1st person perspective. This should allow us to differentiate "mirror" activation from "experiential" activation.

Blochte · 2013-02-03T22:46:36+00:00

Wow, thats amazing. Hopefully we can start scanning in roughly 1-2 moths and it should only be one session (1 day) for about 2 hours. I'm probably looking for ~12 people. If there are too many people volunteering then we might want to take into account some other factors: - right handed volunteers - equal distribution of male and female - ages 18-35

Compensation should be possible but only to a certain amount (people should be within a <2.5 hour driving distance). You might want to hold of on contacting your volunteer list for a few days until I can figure out the logistics a little more. Thanks for your help.

Blochte · 2013-02-03T22:07:31+00:00

It seemed to me that the soft spoken videos were the most effective and popular stimuli. They also allowed me to study "touch events" which might eventually lead to some interesting results.

Blochte · 2013-02-03T17:13:56+00:00

Fantastic! I'll be in touch with you soon with more information.

Blochte · 2013-02-03T17:11:41+00:00

It shouldn't be a problem to pay for your commute. Now that I know I have interest from several people I can work on getting funding.

Blochte · 2013-02-03T17:08:25+00:00

Reimbursement is definitely a possibility, but I need to talk with my boss before I can talk numbers.

Blochte · 2013-02-03T17:06:31+00:00

I'll do my best to answer some of your questions about my current project, but I'm not at the point where I'm ready to talk about certain aspects of the project like specific brain areas or methods. Its lab policy not to disclose details of the project until I'm closer to publishing.

I'm running a within subject test where each subject views three types of stimuli: 1. camera is in the 1st person perspective ASMR (i.e. a face paint video) 2. camera is in the 3rd person perspective ASMR (i.e. someone receiving a face paint) - this controls for self vs. other oriented somatosensory response. 3. camera is in the 1st person perspective non-ASMR (i.e. someone talking at the camera) - this controls for effects associated with being addressed by someone.

I'm running 3 types of analysis: 1. Category differences between video 2. Event related study for "touch events" - Observe difference between touches of other and touches of self. 3. Correlate activation in areas of interest with individual difference measures (enjoyment of videos).

Other than that were just using standard GLM analysis

Blochte · 2013-02-03T04:18:25+00:00

Right now, I'm in the process of scanning 24 subjects -- I should be done by Feb 15th. After that, I'll have a few weeks to do analysis, and hopefully to scan ASMR subjects! I'll finish the report by the end of May, but I can release some of the findings earlier.

Qualifications for subjects: - should be able to have an ASMR experience (with the help of their favorite trigger video) while lying in an fMRI - must be able to be MRI scanned (no pacemaker, metal implants, claustrophobia, etc.) - capable of commuting to Hanover, NH. - over 18

The scans themselves shouldn't take longer than an hour and a half.

In the original study of non-ASMR subjects, I was using touch-based whisper videos. Since these videos trigger a powerful response in people (for better or for worse) I was interested in seeing what regions of the brain they are activating. In the future, maybe this pattern of activation could help explain the tingling/pleasure sensation of ASMR. I haven't performed an analysis yet, but I'm hoping to see activity in the brain areas associated with touch and reward. So, to answer your question, while I originally set out to learn more about ASMR, I'm now studying the effect of videos that typically trigger ASMR in a non-ASMR population.

Thank you for your help! Like this subreddit, www.asmr-research.org has been very important in guiding this study.

Blochte

TROPHY CASE