Music, memory, and earworms

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 26 May 2005 12:44 pm

From the MSNBC Website today...

Scientists study how music stirs memories
Songs and associated stimuli spark vivid recollections

Updated: 3:56 p.m. ET May 26, 2005
If the song "It's a Small World" has ever driven you bananas, then you've got an idea where this story is going.

We've all had tunes stuck in our heads. Some of them remind us of childhood friends, places or events.

A new study backs the obvious notion that a song can evoke strong memories. It also reveals that you don't even have to hear a song for the past to come flooding back.

In fact, most people have an amazing ability to effectively hear songs that aren't even being played.

Word power
The new study involved 124 people, average age 19, who were asked to choose from a list of old songs and pick the one that evoked the strongest memory. One group just saw the title, another saw the lyrics, the third saw the album cover or a photo of the artist. A fourth group heard a snippet of the song.

The participants ranked the vividness of their memories.

The recollections were extremely clear for each group, said researcher Elizabeth Cady. "Music is a big cue," she concludes.

Cady, a doctoral student in psychology at Kansas State University, cites the study as evidence for the pervasiveness of mass media, noting that many of the participants' memories were the same as her own.

The results will be presented this week at the American Psychological Society meeting in Los Angeles.

Driving you nuts
You can test the power of song titles right now. But beware, one of these could ruin your day:

"The Theme from Gilligan's Island"
"Mission: Impossible"
"We Will Rock You"
"The Macarena"

These ditties, along with "Small World," were cited in a 2001 study by James Kellaris at the University of Cincinnati as among the most common that get stuck in peoples' heads.

Kellaris found that 99 percent of the 1,000 people he surveyed reported having songs lodged in their noggins. Nearly half said it happens frequently.

A simple song with lots of repetition and an unexpected shift is among the most likely to bedevil you, Kellaris says. Down the road, it creates a "cognitive itch" — the thing that might bug you all day today (…after all…).

"The only way to 'scratch' a cognitive itch is to rehearse the responsible tune mentally," Kellaris said. "The process may start involuntarily, as the brain detects an incongruity or something 'exceptional' in the musical stimulus. The ensuing mental repetition may exacerbate the 'itch,' such that the mental rehearsal becomes largely involuntary, and the individual feels trapped in a cycle or feedback loop."

All in the lyrics
Scientists are beginning to figure out what's behind the insanity. A study earlier this year used brain scans to reveal that musical memories are stored in the brain's auditory cortex. It also showed that you continue to hear a familiar song in our head when the music stops playing.

"We played music in the scanner, and then we hit a virtual 'mute' button," explained David Kraemer, a graduate student in Dartmouth's Psychological and Brain Sciences Department. "We found that people couldn't help continuing the song in their heads, and when they did this, the auditory cortex remained active even though the music had stopped."

The study was reported in the March 10 issue of the journal Nature.

"It's fascinating that although the ear isn't actually hearing the song, the brain is perceptually hearing it," said co-author William Kelley, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth.

The researchers were surprised to find a difference in how we recall songs with words versus instrumentals.

When the mute button was hit during the word-free theme from "The Pink Panther" (sorry to do that again) people relied on many different parts of the auditory cortex to fill in the blanks. Fewer brain parts were required to continue "hearing" songs with words.

"It makes us think that lyrics might be the focus of the memory," Kraemer said.

© 2005 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

• March 11, 2005 | 8 p.m. ET
How to kill an earworm: Researchers now know where your brain stores remembered melodies, such as those annoying mental tunes known as sticky songs, song viruses or "earworms." But they haven't yet figured out a surefire cure. Even people who have lost their hearing can experience the extreme form of earworms, known as "musical hallucinosis." That's because the earworms don't originate in your ears, but in the higher-level areas of your auditory cortex.

Fortunately, Cosmic Log readers provided an ample dose of sympathy and folk-remedy suggestions. Here's a selection:

Justin Probert, Traverse City, Mich.: "It may not be a solution to eliminate earworms all together, but I've found that if you get a particular earworm in your head that you really wish you didn't get (Spice Girls' 'If You Wanna Be My Lover'), then focus on a familiar catchy song you wouldn't mind hearing over and over, and before you know it, you're humming a happier tune and people won't be wondering the reason for your cringing."

Kip Davis, Helena, Mont.: "Choose a long, complicated song (I use 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' or 'Both Sides Now' — all 3 verses) and sing it to yourself. You must get all of the words correct — start over if you mess up. By the time you get to the end of your complicated song, the earworm will be gone."

Gary Mosse, San Antonio: "As a lifelong musician I have always had songs in my head. I've found that when I have a song going in my head, one way to get rid of it is to concentrate on another song. As a composer, I find that when I work on a new piece, the music extends in my memory — when I go for walks, drive in the car, or mow the lawn — between the time I begin and when I finally bring the work to a conclusion."

Anonymous: "Two suggestions for battling earworms: 1. Create an arsenal of songs of your choosing to combat the annoying worms ('O Holy Night' is a song that works for me). 2. On a basic musical level, say if you're wormed by a song that's in the key of G, mentally hum a sustained F# or G#, or modulate between the F# and G# in order to 'squeeze' or disorient the worm — that is, let the waves 'beat' each other. Try these next time."

Jeremiah Jones, Portland, Ore.: "I found that when I try to jumble the words or sing them backwards in my head, the 'earworm' goes away ... either me or my brain gets tired of the confusion and it gets quiet again (most of the time)."

E.G., Los Angeles: "I think this is most interesting, especially in the case of bipolar people who 'hear' voices. As a person who realized he is bipolar, I know that when I heard voices, it usually was most prominent whenever I was in crowded places. I'd overhear bits of conversation, and think that people were talking about me. But now that I read this, could research be far off that some of these 'voices' are earworms? Or that a few actual fragments of a conversation can be completed and made whole in the primary auditory cortex?"

A. Lisa Swift: "Usually, if I can identify the earworm or its source, that solves the problem. It is only when I cannot identify the snatch of music that it drives me semi-insane. Words help, but I seldom am plagued by music with words, except when it's an instrumental passage from a song (like the opening to the unplugged version of Eric Clapton's 'Layla').

"Classical music, however, can be a problem, because of a lack of people who have the ability to identify these earworms in this area. For years, I was 'possessed' by a particular passage from a classical source, and no matter to whom I hummed it, no one could identify it. (Please note that I was a classically trained vocalist.) One day I played a cassette of Grieg's 'Peer Gynt Suite,' and there it was: 'In the Hall of the Mountain King.' I hadn't listened to that music for over 20 years, and had been haunted by that particular theme ever since my last session with it.

"Now, I have to listen to the Suite, or have a cell call come in — I downloaded it for my ringtone, because I know that piece will always get my attention, no matter how distracted I am. LOL!"

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Funny thing is, what's not to like about steel earworms?[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 26 May 2005 at 02:04 PM.]

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 26 May 2005 2:12 pm

The earworm I HATE MOST is the original
LUVS diaper commercial jingle.

If I could just WRAP my hands
AROUND that adman's NECK
and every so slowly SQEEEEEEZZZZEEEE!

Yes, yes, it's getting better now... sigh
only took 30 years.

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 26 May 2005 at 03:13 PM.]