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Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Why do songs get stuck in our heads?

Why some tunes lodge in our brain isn't so clear. Anyway there are a few theories.

Can't get a new song out of your head? You've probably got an earworm, which tends to be this little fragment of the song, often the chorus that keeps playing and replaying like it's stuck on the loop of your head. The phenomenon is quite common. A recent study shows that 91% of the people reported having an earworm once a week, while about a quarter of them more than once a day.

Earworms are involuntary and tend to occur in eight seconds but the reason why and what triggers them remain still a mystery. Music cognition research suggests that earworms have something to do with how music affects the brain's motor cortex. When people are listening to music there is a lot of activity in the motor planning  area. People are participating even if they are still. Researchers believe an earworm is your brain "singing" and that actually it turns to be that most people find them somewhat enjoyable.

Once an earworm lodges in your psyche, how do you get rid of it? The best method is for people to distract themselves by listening to other music or something that involves language, tackling a crossword perhaps or having a conversation. A second technique is listening to the earworm song itself repeatedly until the earworm is exhausted.



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