Sound Quality Factors Inducing the Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response

The acoustical characteristics of auditory triggers often recommended to generate the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) on Internet platforms were investigated by parameterizing their sound qualities following Zwicker’s procedure and calculating autocorrelation (ACF)/interaural cross-correlation (IACF) functions. For 20 triggers (10 human- and 10 nature-generated sounds), scores (on a five-point Likert scale) of the ASMR, perceived loudness, perceived pitch, comfort, and perceived closeness to the sound image were obtained for 26 participants by questionnaire. The results show that the human-generated sounds were more likely to trigger stronger ASMR than nature-generated sounds, and the primary psychological aspect relating to the ASMR was the perceived closeness, with the triggers perceived more closely to a listener having higher ASMR scores. The perceived closeness was evaluated by the loudness and roughness (among Zwicker’s parameter) for the nature-generated sounds and the interaural cross-correlation coefficient (IACC) (among ACF/IACF parameters) for the human-generated sounds. The nature-generated sounds with higher loudness and roughness and the human-generated sounds with lower IACC were likely to evoke the ASMR sensation.