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