Perk up at the sound of a good sizzle? It might be ASMR

What is ASMR? We asked Wikipedia.

“Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a tingling sensation that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia and may overlap with frisson.”

It’s a lot of fancy words for a noise that give you the tingles.

The best way to get your ASMR fix? The Sizzle.

We sure love stuff that sizzles. Clearly that hiss of cool meeting hot resonates with us deeply.

Celebrity Chef Adrian Richardson, star of The Chef’s Secret series relies on the sizzle to cook his perfect steak.

“It’s what you want to hear when you put the steak into the pan. The Sizzle. That’s how you know it’s cooking properly,” said Adrian.

The sizzle could be linked to our neurochemistry. A 2004 study that asked hungry participants to concentrate on their favourite food while under an MRI showed three areas of the brain lighting up; the hippocampus, insula and caudate.

Could the noise of a sizzling BBQ give our brain’s a shot of dopamine from the caudate nucleus? Or is the hippocampus eliciting chemicals in reaction to sensory memories of past meals?

Fulfilling cravings offers the brain a chemical reward, and the pleasure from the chemicals released may be part of what makes the sound of a sizzling gas grill so enjoyable.

Whatever the reason, if this 45 minutes of bacon frying doesn’t get your audio tactile synesthesia going, nothing will!