Whenever you read any lyrics of the song it stucks  in your head. Isn’t it? And sometimes it doesn’t even suit with the situation. Getting a song stuck your mind and humming it all day and getting weird glances is annoying. Ever wondered how it happens? Let’s ask the science about it. It’s not unusual to get a song stuck in your head. And it usually seems pretty random.

It’s called an Earworm, borrowed from the German word Ohrwurm. 
No, it’s not an actual insect who poops musical notes in your head. It’s more to do with a ‘musical itch’ of your brain that happens when you hear a catchy piece of music. These songs, often called earworms, are usually faster, with a fairly generic and easy-to-remember melody but with some particular intervals, such as leaps or repetitions that set them apart from the average pop song, according to the first large-scale study of earworms.  “Earworms are an extremely common phenomenon and an example of spontaneous cognition,” the study’s lead author, Kelly Jakubowski, PhD, of Durham University in the U.K., told CBS News. “Psychologists know that humans spend up to 40 percent of our days engaging in spontaneous cognition and are starting to try to understand why our brains spend so much time thinking thoughts unrelated to our present task and how such thoughts might be useful.” “Earworms” or to some people “Stuck Song Syndrome” is a very common phenomenon, in fact over 90% of the population are experiencing this at the moment.

Scratching that itch will make it worse. Stop repeating the song.
When you’ve heard a song enough times, it qualifies for being an earworm. People say that listening to the song in its entirety will make it go away. But it’s like scratching an itch, the more you scratch, the more it will itch. When you hear it for multiple number of times, your brain starts to memorise it and it can then predict what will come next, and hence prepares for that in its idle time. Hence, you keep humming it at unexpected times. In a way, an earworm is your brain rehearsing.

Blame it on your short-term memory.
Your brain has an audio-based short-term memory of around 15 to 20 seconds. For a song to be qualifiable as an earworm, it’s catchy part should be ideally 8-10 seconds long. Your long-term memory can also be the culprit. Basically, even if you haven’t heard anything in the recent past, a trigger in your environment or surroundings can remind you of the song, and it can bring it back into your recent bank.

Studies prove that women get more earworms.
Surveys over the years have shown that almost 98% of the human population gets affected by earworms at least once in a week. Men and women get affected equally, but women have been proven to find it difficult to get rid of them longer than men. People with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and musicians have also shown to suffer from this syndrome, also known as stuck song syndrome.

How do I make it go away, PLEASE TELL ME!?
Many studies by scientists around the world have proposed a number of suggestions to alleviate an earworm. The basic fundamental for it is to occupy your brain with something else that will make it use all its available resources. Common suggestions include reading a book, solving a Sudoku puzzle, and also to focus entirely on another song. Research also suggests that if a song has a repetitive pattern, it’s more of a candidate to get stuck in your head. Making the song reach a climax, or break that pattern can also help to get rid of it.

You don’t have to worry if a song does manage to get stuck in your head. It proves that your brain short-term memory is working in peak condition. Busy with other stuffs and it will go away.

Tags: catchy tunesearwormsintrsting newsMusic

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