REST-ASMR: A multimodal dataset of photoplethysmography and continuous behavioral responses to ASMR and nature videos

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is a somatosensory phenomenon characterized by pleasant tingling sensations and cardiovascular slowing. However, ASMR research has been hindered by a dearth of standardized, open-access multimodal datasets. To address this limitation, we present REST-ASMR (Response to Environmental & Sensory Triggers), a synchronized multimodal dataset designed to capture behavioral reports and physiological dynamics during ASMR, with nature-relaxation videos as control stimuli. The dataset includes high-resolution photoplethysmography (PPG), time-aligned audiovisual stimuli, and continuous subjective annotations from 34 participants. Technical validation showed high stimulus efficacy (97% responder rate), significant stimulus-specific inter-subject agreement (p < 0.05), and a robust PPG-derived ASMR-specific cardiovascular deceleration. Additionally, a Bidirectional Long-Short Term Memory model successfully predicted subjective ASMR tingle states, achieving video-level ASMR vs. Nature classification with perfect accuracy and a frame-level global mean accuracy of 75.51%, macro F1-score of 71.86%, and 100% Nature-baseline specificity, under a strict, leakage-free subject-video double-independent 4-fold cross-validation. REST-ASMR constitutes a dense temporal foundation for affective computing, multimodal research, and the development of personalized models of relaxation-related responses. The preprocessing and deep learning pipeline used to validate this dataset is available at: https://github.com/Tushardas2663/REST-ASMR-Pipeline The dataset is archived in a standard hierarchical structure containing three primary directories: log, ppg, and stim. 1. Log Files (/log): This directory houses 34 event logs generated by the Presentation software. Files follow the naming convention: [SubjectID]-[Condition]-[Date]-[Hash].log. · SubjectID: A unique identifier ranging from 001 to 035, excluding 002. · Condition: Denotes the block order with odd Condition IDs corresponding to ASMR-first order (ASMR block followed by nature block) and even IDs corresponding to Nature-first order. · Structure: Each log is a tab-separated text file containing multiple columns. The important ones are: · Time: Event timestamp (in 0.1 ms units). · Event Type: Categorical markers for Pulse (system heartbeat), Video (stimulus onset), and Response (user input). · Code: Specific identifiers for the stimuli for Video events (vid1–vid4 for ASMR; vid5–vid8 for Nature) and behavioral ratings for Response events (1–4). 2. Physiological Data (/ppg): This directory contains 34 raw physiological recordings named [SubjectID]_csv.txt. SubjectID ranges from 001 to 035, except 002. · Format: ASCII text files with a header specifying the source (.acq) and sampling interval (0.5 ms). · Channels: · Column 1: Time elapsed (minutes). · Column 2 (CH1): Raw PPG amplitude (mV). · Column 3 (CH2): Pre-filtered PPG amplitude (mV) (0.5–35 Hz bandpass). · Alignment: The start of the file (t=0) is synchronized with the experiment start time recorded in the corresponding log file. 3. Stimuli (/stim): This directory contains the source media files in .avi format. · ASMR: ASMR1.avi to ASMR4.avi. · Nature: nature1.avi to nature4.avi.