Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Volga bomb here. Why do songs
Speaker 1: and jingles get seemingly inextricably stuck in our heads? I
Speaker 1: mean I forget my phone number sometimes? So why does
Speaker 1: my brain occasionally dredge up a song from a ninety
Speaker 1: nineties Bagel Bites commercial and play it on repeat for hours?
Speaker 1: Earworms aren't literal parasites, thank heck. But they are parasitic
Speaker 1: in the sense that they get lodged in your head
Speaker 1: and cause a sort of cognitive itch, a need for
Speaker 1: the brain to fill in the gaps in a song's rhythm.
Speaker 1: When we listen to a song, it triggers a part
Speaker 1: of the brain called the auditory cortex. A Researchers at
Speaker 1: Dartmouth University found that when they played part of a
Speaker 1: familiar song to research subjects, the participants auditory cortex automatically
Speaker 1: filled in the rest. In other words, their brains kept
Speaker 1: singing long after the song had ended. The only way
Speaker 1: to scratch brain it is to repeat the song over
Speaker 1: and over in your mind. Unfortunately, like with mosquito bites,
Speaker 1: the more you scratch, the more you itch, and so on,
Speaker 1: until you're stuck in an unending song cycle. But that's
Speaker 1: just one theory. There are many others about why songs
Speaker 1: get stuck in our heads. Some researchers say stuck songs
Speaker 1: are like thoughts that we're trying to suppress. The harder
Speaker 1: we try not to think about them, the more we
Speaker 1: can't help it. Other experts claim that earworms are simply
Speaker 1: a way to keep the brain busy when it's idling.
Speaker 1: James Colores, a marketing professor at the University of Cincinnati
Speaker 1: College of Business Administration, has done research on earworms and
Speaker 1: brain itch, and he's found that as many as of
Speaker 1: us have fallen prey to them at one time or another.
Speaker 1: Colaris says that women, musicians, and people who are tired
Speaker 1: or stressed are more prone to earworm attacks. With musicians,
Speaker 1: it makes sense because they're listening to music continuously, but
Speaker 1: Colors isn't sure why women have been found to be
Speaker 1: more susceptible. Researchers also aren't sure why some songs are
Speaker 1: more likely to get stuck in our heads than others.
Speaker 1: But everyone has their own tunes that drive them up
Speaker 1: the wall. Often the songs have a simple upbeat melody, catchy,
Speaker 1: repetitive lyrics, and a surprise like an extra beat or
Speaker 1: unusual rhythm, the same factors that made the songs or
Speaker 1: jingles popular in the first place. Songs with lyrics account
Speaker 1: for some seventy four percent of what we get stuck
Speaker 1: in our heads, followed by commercial jingles, fiercent and instrumental songs.
Speaker 1: And even though it can be annoying, we don't just
Speaker 1: repeat the songs that we hate. In one study done
Speaker 1: by researchers at Bucknell University, more than half of students
Speaker 1: who had songs stuck in their heads rated them as
Speaker 1: pleasant and were neutral. Only fifteen percent of the songs
Speaker 1: were considered unpleasant. Unfortunately, there is no tried, in true
Speaker 1: way to get songs out of your head. Once they're
Speaker 1: stuck in there, they can stick in your brain for
Speaker 1: anywhere from a few minutes to several days. Most earworms
Speaker 1: will eventually crawl out on their own, But if a
Speaker 1: song is nagging you to the brink, here are a
Speaker 1: few tips. Try singing a different song, playing another melody
Speaker 1: on an instrument, or listening to other music, or switch
Speaker 1: to an activity that keeps you busy, like working out,
Speaker 1: or try listening to the song all the way through.
Speaker 1: Our researchers even recommend picturing the earworm is a real
Speaker 1: creature crawling out of your head, and then imagining stomping
Speaker 1: on it. They also say that talking about your earworm
Speaker 1: can help, but you might want to be careful. Your
Speaker 1: friends and family might not appreciate it. Though. If you
Speaker 1: do prank someone with an earworm, you'll be in historic company.
Speaker 1: Back in the seventeen hundreds, Mozart's children would supposedly annoy
Speaker 1: him by starting a melody on the piano and leaving
Speaker 1: it hanging. He would rush downstairs to finish the tune.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Stephanie Watson and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clain. For more on this and lots of other
Speaker 1: curious topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit thy heart Radio, app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.