For some reason Cranial Nerve Exam has generated a whole heap of videos and not surprisingly a number of these have people commenting that they are great for ASMR symptoms.
Helpfully BrainLine (for that is the YouTube channel where you find today’s video) provides its own playlist for Dr James Kelly (however they call him Dr Jim Kelly on the playlist) which is here:
However I am in no sense stating that these are all good for ASMR.
In addition, this playlist is no less than twenty one videos long (and I think that is stretching your patience a tad much for one blog item). As luck would have it the first two are the ones that concern a medical examination and so I will limit this blog item to just those two.
Today’s video is this one:
Cranial Nerve Test
By the way I had not the least idea who Pat LaFontaine is but he turns out to be a famous former ice hockey player.
Hence (I am sure) why his name appears in the title of this video. To ice hockey fans I apologise for my ignorance. All I can say is that he has a marvellously calm voice. (He might be a resource for ASMR videos in the future – if anybody has found any please get in touch).
Dr James Kelly turns out to be something of a superstar himself, his YouTube playlist bio states that he was “the neurological consultant for the Chicago Bears”. All I can say is that he has a great soothing voice and is very much worth listening to if you need to be chilled before falling asleep.
By the way this video is the one that started the now famous phrase “sandwich breath” which appears to occur very often in the comments of a number of ASMR videos. No I have no idea why either but a number of ASMR fans seem to appreciate the fact that other fans are also aware of it.
The BrainLine channel is huge. There are so many videos I am not going to set about counting them so I will limit myself to medical exams and Dr James Kelly (so I’ll start with that playlist).
Of the twenty-one videos contained in this playlist by far the majority are interviews to gain the benefits of Dr Kelly’s expertise on brain health.
In terms of medical examinations there is only one further video:
Neuropsychology Test
This is equally as great as the first one in my opinion.
Both of these will now go into the playlist.
The Dr James Kelly playlist is here:
The playlist of all items featured so far in this blog is here:
I hope that you find them restful.
If you liked this blog item why not follow this blog
The next item in the ASMR sleep series is a little more complicated. Now that I have been following ASMR-related videos for a while it has become obvious that some ASMR publishing people are trying to game the system.
From the number of follows, comments, views, and so-on I am not the only person who is searching for ASMR content. There appears to be a subset of people who are interested in videos where the person produces ASMR effects by mistake. Examples include speeches made where the person has a gentle voice; a lecture where the lecturer’s tone happens to be the correct one to set off ASMR in some of the listeners; interviews where the participants have very calm voices.
Some professional ASMR artists, (and indeed amateur ASMR artists) are now making videos deliberately but claiming they were produced entirely coincidentally. There is obviously a money angle – the more adherents you have – the more advertising-related revenue you can captivate. So the temptation is there, frankly, to cheat.
Some titles will say something like “by a genuine person” (as if there were non-genuine people wandering around). Sometimes there are “medical examination” videos, with a couple of suspiciously attractive young people in the video who don’t appear to know a great deal about medicine.
In this climate I am a little unsure about this series. They are great videos for ASMR which purport to be part of a medical education series.
Patient Examination Series- Dr Hollie Berry
Given I am suspicious I took a look on DuckDuckGo (other search engines exist) and it turns out there is no Dr Hollie Berry other than as part of this video series (or other people discussing this video series). No LinkedIn account, no medical papers, no references or citations – and no college sites linking to the videos.
So far Aidan Blunt appears to be the only source and he (assuming it is a he) is obviously aware that Dr Berry has this affect in some listeners as he has produced some videos edited in order to enhance the ASMR effect.
Here:
Cranial Nerves Examination ASMR Loop
I have a dislike of ASMR loop videos. There will be (say) a medical exam which is about ten minutes and to make it an hour it will play (or parts of it will play) over and again. It might be that I am just dosing when a part I’ve heard before comes winging back. This is one of those. So I will not be adding it to the playlist.
And here:
Cardiac Examination ASMR Edit
This one edited in order to enhance its ASMR effect. Again I won’t add this one to the playlist, however some people reading may find this kind of thing right up their street perhaps.
And here:
Abdominal Examination ASMR Edit
Also edited for its ASMR effect and therefore, as before, not included in the playlist.
And here:
Upper Limb Neuro Examination ASMR Edit
As before.
However Aidan also produces some more dedicated medical videos so for the purposes of this blog item I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I found this series originally through a posting on Reddit
Which leads to this video:
Cranial Nerve Examination
Which leads me to suspect that the filming was done at Manchester Medical School and the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. However I am currently not able to find any similar video content other than that put out by Aidan.
This video has the smell of the genuine article and is a sensible seven and a half minutes in length which seems to fit with a reasonable length medical examination video found elsewhere.
Aidan Blunt – this is the channel where the Hollie Berry videos are all found. There are thirty four videos here and so too many to feature in any one blog item.
However I started with a Hollie Berry video and so I will concentrate on the videos from this channel that feature Hollie Berry.
Apart from the compilation, ASMR edit and ASMR loop videos (all of which I know to be doctored and therefore will discount) there are these:
Abdominal Examination
This is a sensible length at five minutes thirteen seconds.
Cardiovascular Examination
This one is five minutes six seconds.
I think Hollie may have my favourite ASMR voice of the videos I have covered so far.
Diabetic Foot Examination
Three minutes twenty five seconds in length.
A repeating theme in these is that the “patient” appears either petrified or completely distracted. I’m not sure what they could have said to them to get them in this state. Hollie seems the ideal medical person – professional and relaxing. But for the people in these videos it does not appear to be working.
Lymph Gland Examination
Three minutes fourteen seconds in length. And given the comments I’d say a number of people find Hollie’s voice to be relaxing.
Respiratory Examination
Five minutes thirty four seconds in length. The more I listen the more I think this set of videos is a great find ASMR-wise.
Upper Limb Neuro
This last set seem all to have been posted eleven years ago. I think we can assume that Hollie Berry does (or did) exist and probably made a set of videos for the Manchester Medical Schools a decade or so ago. They’ve moved on and taken down her videos subsequently but Aidan has preserved them for some reason.
Why Hollie should disappear altogether at that point is anybody’s guess but a set of six short videos is all we have of the greatest ASMR voice I have so far discovered. A great shame.
The playlist is here:
The complete playlist of videos covered so far is here:
In my opinion the first of these is the best in terms of ASMR-i-ness (if such a term could be said to exist). Yet again a change of direction as we look away from standard medical examinations and move to eye-related exams instead.
The channel comes from the Moran Eye Centre at the University of Utah.
Moran CORE (for such is the channel) provide a number of ophthalmic-related videos, but the best from an ASMR perspective is this one:
The Neuro-ophthalmology Exam: Neuro
The key to this I think is probably the interactions between Judith Warner, ophthalmologist and the “patient” Megan (who turns up in other videos in the series). Megan seems to have the most naturally restful voice here I think.
Moran CORE has so many videos that I gave up counting them and so it is critical to limit the videos that I present here. (Both for my typing fingers and your no doubt tired eyes).
Sadly Moran CORE does not present any helpful playlists that include this particular video so the obvious approach is to filter on videos “starring” the same ophthalmologist or featuring the same “patient” (Megan).
What leaps out scanning the videos is that a number of them feature the same “patient”.
Sticking to videos initially that feature the same “patient” we have this one:
The Orbital Exam
Which is with Tom Oberg instead of Judith Warner. Tom actually has a good voice ASMR-wise but again Megan’s is better. The approach is calm and de-stressing. Both Tom and Judith have been encouraging and patient – the kind of person that you want if someone is going to be examining you.
The Ophthalmic Exam: Retina and Posterior Segment
This is with Andrew Davis, who is technically brilliant I’m sure, but sadly does not have a great voice for ASMR. In this one Megan seems to say very little. So it’s a washout for us sadly and will not be added to the playlist.
The Neuro-ophthalmology Exam: Pupils; Color; Eye Movements; Prism
This is Laura Hanson with the “patient” Megan again. Laura doesn’t have the greatest ASMR voice but Megan here gets more of a speaking role which compensates to an extent.
However as before I do not think this makes the grade for the playlist.
Indirect Ophthalmoscopy with Scleral Depression
This is James Zimmerman with Megan. James’ voice is actually quite good here. But I don’t think it is going to be good enough sadly. This isn’t going to make the grade for the playlist.
How to Instill Topical Anesthetics
Lloyd B Williams with Megan. Lloyd also has a good voice. But again I don’t think this one will graduate to the playlist.
The Neuro-ophthalmology Exam: Eyelids
Laura Hanson again, as far as I can tell the last video featuring Megan and so the last of this blog item. This is slightly better than the earlier Laura video I think. However I still don’t think it is going to make the playlist.
Filtering the videos by the “patient” is an arbitrary method for limiting the videos. However Moran CORE has so many videos and they are so varied that I suspect we will be mining this resource in the future.
The Moran CORE Playlist is here:
The playlist of all videos so far covered in this blog is here:
The Procrastination Pen 