We’ve all experienced frustrating days when we have been “infected” by a song that just won’t leave our minds.
While most of these “earworms”—songs that get stuck in our minds—last only for a few minutes, some can persist for hours or even days.
Most of us are simply confounded by the phenomenon, but psychology Ph.D. student Andréane McNally-Gagnon and professor Silvie Hébert, both at the University of Montreal, decided to look deeper into the issue. This research, they say, is unprecedented.
“The only such studies that have been conducted were on test subjects who mentally imagined a song,” said Dr. Hébert in a press release. “We believe the neurological process is different with earworms, because the phenomenon is involuntary.”
They asked 18 musicians and 18 non-musicians to hum and record songs that they like. The researchers recorded the subjects’ emotional states before and after. They discovered that earworm infections last longer for musicians than non-musicians, and that the phenomenon occurs usually when the subjects are in a positive emotional state and are involved in non-intellectual activities such as walking.
“Perhaps the phenomenon occurs to prevent brooding or to change moods,” said Hébert.
McNally-Gagnon and Hébert now plan to study earworms using MRI or Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation technology.
While most of these “earworms”—songs that get stuck in our minds—last only for a few minutes, some can persist for hours or even days.
Most of us are simply confounded by the phenomenon, but psychology Ph.D. student Andréane McNally-Gagnon and professor Silvie Hébert, both at the University of Montreal, decided to look deeper into the issue. This research, they say, is unprecedented.
“The only such studies that have been conducted were on test subjects who mentally imagined a song,” said Dr. Hébert in a press release. “We believe the neurological process is different with earworms, because the phenomenon is involuntary.”
They asked 18 musicians and 18 non-musicians to hum and record songs that they like. The researchers recorded the subjects’ emotional states before and after. They discovered that earworm infections last longer for musicians than non-musicians, and that the phenomenon occurs usually when the subjects are in a positive emotional state and are involved in non-intellectual activities such as walking.
“Perhaps the phenomenon occurs to prevent brooding or to change moods,” said Hébert.
McNally-Gagnon and Hébert now plan to study earworms using MRI or Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation technology.
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