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00:00Listen to a song a few times and then even minutes, hours later, you're doing
00:04the dishes or doing something else and that song just pops into your head. You
00:08ever wonder why that happens? Well, curiosity got the better of me and I set
00:12out for answers. I linked up with Dr. Carol Sherling, a neuroscientist from
00:17Belmont University here in Nashville, Tennessee. We sat down and talked all
00:21about earworms and the neuroscience behind what happens when a catchy tune
00:26gets stuck in our heads. Carol's intimate knowledge of the brain made for a
00:30really interesting conversation. I think you guys are gonna dig it. Let's start the
00:34show. Tell me a little bit about your background, like as far as your field.
00:42So my background is in what's called behavioral neuroscience. In particular,
00:47I've studied cognition. So what are things we notice? What are things we don't
00:51notice? Or what are things that make it into our brain, but we didn't even realize
00:55they made it into our brain. I also study emotions. So the effect of emotions on
00:59what we remember, how it can modulate our mood. And how does music play into that?
01:04Well, everything, right? You notice notes. You notice sequences of notes. You notice a
01:09song makes you feel happy or a song makes you feel sad. And so all these things
01:13together, music is a wonderful tool to incite an emotion, but also to just study,
01:19you know, what are differences between clinical groups and healthy groups.
01:22Nice. This particular video, we're calling it sticky lyrics.
01:26Yes. Okay. You know, like the idea of very simple song getting stuck in your head or,
01:31you know, or a jingle. One of my favorite jingles is El Pollo Loco because it's one note.
01:38El Pollo Loco. That's right. Can't forget it. Yeah. So what's going on with sticky lyrics? What's going on
01:45with music getting stuck in your head? The clinical term we use is involuntary musical imagery. What's
01:52happening in this case is you are essentially reciting the same song in a sub vocal way. And
01:59sub vocal is going to be used not just for lyrics, but also for the notes. And so what we notice in
02:05studies. So there's different types of scans. One is an fMRI. FMRI measures blood flow. Think about if
02:11you're running a marathon. Okay. If you're running a marathon, you would need blood to flow to your
02:15legs. So you could propagate forward in the marathon. The same thing happens in the brain.
02:20If you're using a part of the brain, you need blood flow to increase to that part of the brain.
02:24Okay. And that's what we measure in an fMRI. Okay. And so when we have people who are talking about,
02:31I have this earworm, what we're seeing is an increase in the areas that you use when you're
02:36actually listening to a song. It's called the A2 area, the secondary auditory. And so they use this
02:43area of the brain when you're listening to a song and you're making sense of the song. But when the
02:47song isn't there, that area lights up again. So it is literally like your brain is still listening to
02:53something, even if you don't have the stimuli there. Okay. So it's almost an analogy here,
03:00cause I'm not a scientist, but like a muscle that's been working. And it just keeps working. And then
03:06when you stop, your heart's still beating your body, you know, and it slowly comes back down to pace.
03:12It's not lit to the same. It doesn't have the same level of blood flow as if you were listening to
03:17something, but that same area that processes sound is still processing the sub vocal sound for you.
03:23And so if I'm focusing on the fact that I can hear it in my head, that continues that part to keep
03:31flowing. Thus, wow, you're a good teacher. Cause I actually understand what you're saying.
03:37So there's some also something else in the brain called mirror neurons, mirror neurons, mirror neurons,
03:42mirror neurons, right? It sounds very futuristic. There's this story that we hear in neuroscience
03:47about how they were discovered. These Italians went for lunch, came back with ice cream and they were
03:52looking at their monkeys who had sensors in the motor cortex. Oh, okay. And as they're eating their
03:58ice cream, they noticed their monkeys are having reactions. Them watching the movement led to their
04:04neurons firing. Okay. And so it's the same idea. If you're an athlete watching someone else do a triple
04:12axle, watching yourself in a game or even thinking about it, you actually activate those neurons. And so
04:19a musician can do exactly the same thing. If you start thinking about the song, it can activate the
04:24mirror neurons. And that also happens with these sticky lyrics. Not only are you activating the
04:29auditory, but you might actually be activating the motor, the finger movements, or we were talking
04:35about rush earlier, the drum rolls, right? And so there's, there's a lot of other brain regions that
04:42come into play to make it a, not just an auditory experience, but a holistic experience, which is
04:47what music is. Oh, wow. That's, that is really, really cool. Okay. So what's the process going on
04:53that leads to the song and lyrics being stuck in your head where it's out of your control? Okay.
05:00Basically, if we're going to talk about why we get them, we should talk about some of the features of
05:05the music itself that leads you to be attracted to that. This is where I'll take notes because I can,
05:09this is how you can rule the world. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of studies that
05:14have looked at the concept of earworms. The problem is, is that there isn't a lot of literature on out
05:19there because they happen so fast. Yeah. The majority of these are pretty benign. They're positive or
05:26neutral. The ones we remember though are the negative times. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I still remember in high
05:30school, what's new Pussycat? Man, that song just went over and over in my head. I don't remember
05:35all the positive times this is happening. Yeah, yeah. They usually come into our brain when we're
05:39idle. You've heard it recently. You see something in your environment. Maybe you're doing chores and
05:44your brain kind of needs to keep the stimulation up. So you'll get them. But the features of the songs
05:49that lead you to get them, fast tempo, lyrics, 74% of them are lyrics based. It's extra data for our brain.
05:56Exactly. It's an extra cue. I know. Look at you. You're a neuroscientist. So it's an extra cue for
06:02your brain. Not only do you have a note, but you also have a lyric attached to every note. There's
06:07two ways that can be prompted in your brain. Jingles are about 15% and I think instrumental
06:14is then about 11. So that's the kind of prevalence. So if you want to get in someone's head, music
06:19and lyrics really, really make a difference. So as I said, fast music and lyrics. There's also the
06:25idea of you want to go up and then down. Think twinkle, twinkle, little star.
06:36That. You go up and you come down. So a rise and a fall. That tends to stick. Most songs that
06:42are earworms will have that rise and that fall.
06:44All right. I want to get deeper into rise and falls while I've got my guitar plugged in.
06:51All the basic melodies we hear are coming from a scale. The most popular one is the major
06:57scale, which is the do, re, mi scale.
06:59And so the rise is hearing and recognizing the pattern of that set of notes. The rise.
07:14So our ear picks up and hears and wants to go along for that ride. I always think back
07:23to my friend Tim Pierce, who's one of the most recorded session guitar players to ever exist from
07:30Michael Jackson to Bruce Springsteen, back and forth. He's played, recorded on all these different
07:34albums and played on hit songs. And he told me that the most famous melodies are like nursery rhymes.
07:40And that relates to that rise and fall as well. And so a perfect example of that. And it's also one of the
07:46first things you learn on guitar is twinkle, twinkle, little star. It's got a note from the scale that rises up and then climbs down the stairs. So.
08:01It went up.
08:08And now here's the climb down the scale.
08:17And it's going to repeat that to really set it in the wheels in motion in that brain.
08:24And it's going to go back to the original just to glue it all together.
08:37Another thing with the rise and fall that I immediately think of is one of the best and most loved guitar players of all time.
09:04BB King. He was playing a blues.
09:11One of the most famous things he would do would be play a lick, but then do a rise up to the octave.
09:17It's that same phenomenon. And I'll show you what I mean. You'll hear it right away.
09:20You'll know. As soon as I do it, you're going to know. Here it is.
09:34And so that is how the earworm begins. The rise and fall creates a loop in your brain. You start hearing that note and it makes connections. The descending, the ascending, the rise and fall.
09:49It just stimulates and gets things going and starts massaging it in there.
09:54And so going up and down, it's easily sung.
09:58We like things. We remember things that we can easily hum to.
10:01And you know, if you have the sequence of going up and that sequence of falling down instead of just jumping all over the place, it's more memorable.
10:08And you remember it. Repetition.
10:10Repetition.
10:11So we were talking earlier, My Sharona.
10:13Yeah.
10:14Seven notes in a row for My Sharona.
10:16Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:17That's weird.
10:18You don't have that in a ton of songs.
10:20So repetition plus a little bit of quirkiness, that also makes a big difference on how you're going to remember it.
10:26It's going to stick out.
10:27One of the worst offenders or best offenders, the way we want to think about it, is Lady Gaga.
10:31Bad romance.
10:32I don't even know how to sing it, but that like, rah, rah.
10:35So she has weird.
10:36Yeah.
10:37And up and down.
10:38And up and down at the same time, Poker Face, same thing, Alejandro, all of those.
10:42Okay.
10:43When they did a study, three of her songs were in the top 10 out of all the songs out there.
10:47Super fascinating.
10:48Yeah.
10:49And we can talk about her having synesthesia at another time, which is blending colors and music together.
10:54All right.
10:55More ways of it getting stuck in your head.
10:58Familiarity.
10:59Okay.
11:00Familiarity.
11:01The more you've heard it, the more likely it is to stick in your head.
11:03And this comes down to memory theories.
11:05So we learn what's called chunking.
11:07We did a video with your colleague, Nicole.
11:09Who talked about that.
11:10She talked about chunking.
11:11Yeah.
11:12And so for the musical experience, you want chunking, right?
11:13Yeah.
11:14Because you wouldn't be able to process that two minutes of a song all in one.
11:18Musicians are a little better at that because of the training and so forth.
11:21But you want to take like a piece.
11:23Now, why does repetition come back?
11:26Well, if you repeat the same chorus multiple times in a song, guess what?
11:30You've chunked that.
11:31Okay.
11:32You'll remember that a lot better.
11:33And then you might put it together with the intervals in between.
11:36The more a chorus is repeated in a song, at every time it's repeated, there's a 7% chance
11:41it makes it to top 40.
11:42Oh.
11:43And then it will then increase the chance of it being an earworm.
11:47Gotcha.
11:48So familiarity, repetition.
11:50So that kind of plays hand in hand.
11:52And then there's the emotional content of things.
11:55So if a song aligns with your current state, if you are sad, guess what you're more likely
12:01to have as an earworm?
12:02Yeah.
12:03A sad song.
12:04And it's because, again, when we encode some things, we encode with a lot of different
12:09features.
12:10The sound, the lyrics, the sense of the song.
12:13And that's another thing.
12:14If you're sad, you're suddenly searching in your brain for things to either reinforce
12:19your current state or to get you out of it.
12:21Most of the time we're glutton for punishment and we try to reinforce the current state.
12:25Those are the factors that really lead to the creation of earworms.
12:29What would be the best way to get it out of your head?
12:33Get it out.
12:34Like what's the, can we, can we reverse engineer this process?
12:37There's lots of things, but none of them have guarantees.
12:39I saw a meme about like, just sing happy birthday in your head or there was something
12:44like that.
12:45Replacement.
12:46Thanks.
12:47Do something else.
12:48So sing something else.
12:49So if you have, for example, I'm going to go back to my What's New Pussycat and I'm
12:53probably going to have this in my head later today.
12:55I have to be like, okay, I need something else.
12:58So I can think of any of my son's kid's song that gets stuck in my head and I would just
13:02sing that one instead going, this one's bugging me more than this one.
13:05So let me try to get this one instead.
13:06So replacement.
13:07Replacement.
13:08Talking about it with someone else.
13:10Catharsis, right?
13:11Getting it out there, talking with someone else.
13:13The weirdest one that's out there, but has some success is chewing, chewing gum, chewing
13:18food.
13:19Is it distracting that part of your brain?
13:21So it kind of comes back to the idea that if you are listening particularly with a song
13:26to lyrics and it's kind of going over in your head, you're doing what we were talking, that
13:30sub vocalization, right?
13:31So you might be engaging the motor cortex with those mirror neurons.
13:34By chewing the gum, you might be decreasing that activity related to the song because you're
13:40using it to actually masticate the gum.
13:43Is it successful in everyone?
13:44No, but it's nice to have that as an arsenal.
13:47Yeah.
13:48Okay.
13:49So getting earworms out of your head, we've got replacement, you know, singing another song,
13:53play another song or just chewing some gum, man.
13:55Yeah.
13:56Just get it out there.
13:57You know, just start.
13:58Activate your motor cortex.
13:59And then there's the whole idea that peppermint can actually spark more.
14:03So now I'm wondering.
14:04Really?
14:05Yeah.
14:06So peppermint can actually spark better memory.
14:07So I'm wondering if you were to combine chewing and thinking of another song, if it would be
14:12more effective.
14:13Good stuff.
14:14I don't know.
14:15But there's other things like imagery.
14:17If you are a vivid imager.
14:19Okay.
14:20And a lot of artists are, right?
14:22Imagine yourself going in your brain and pulling out the song.
14:26Not everyone's good at that.
14:27I know I would not be, but there are a lot of people who are really good at the imaging
14:31stuff.
14:32And then there's also distraction.
14:33So do something else.
14:35Uh-huh.
14:36So stop trying to stew.
14:37The more you stew about the song, the more it's going to stay there.
14:40Yeah.
14:41This is called the suppression rebound.
14:43And then the last thing is to grin and bear it.
14:46Listen to the entire song.
14:48Because when you have an earworm, it's usually just the chorus or just the intro.
14:52So instead, force yourself to listen to it over and over again in entirety.
14:56Not vocally, but listen to it.
14:59Sometimes that's enough for your brain to be like, okay, I've processed it now.
15:02Yeah.
15:03Let's get rid of it.
15:04Okay.
15:05People that are actually more susceptible to the earworm or actually stronger against
15:10it.
15:11Everyone's susceptible.
15:12As we've talked, 99% of people will report having it.
15:15But there are people who are more prone.
15:18Musicians are one of them.
15:19We've mentioned that.
15:20And it's likely just because they're around music.
15:23They're not just consuming other people's music.
15:25They're producing their own music.
15:26And I definitely know my ears are more open to music.
15:29That's it.
15:30You're more tuned to pick up on these things.
15:31Yeah.
15:32Always deconstructing or hearing or breaking it down.
15:34Yeah.
15:35So you notice more.
15:36Yeah.
15:37So you have more to trigger you to having one of these.
15:39People who are a little bit more on the higher on the neuroticism scale and people with obsessive
15:45tendencies tend to also have a little bit more of this.
15:48It's the idea that you perseverate on something and an earworm is a perseveration.
15:53Yeah.
15:54Research also shows that females tend to be a little bit more affected by it, not by frequency.
16:00So male and female will show the same frequency by bite duration.
16:03So when it sticks, it sticks for longer.
16:05Interesting.
16:06And when you're stressed.
16:07Oh.
16:08Mmm.
16:09And when you're stressed, you're more prone to the negative ones, which just adds to the
16:13stress.
16:14Hey, let's have fun.
16:15Yay.
16:16So good.
16:17Well, Carol Sherling, I just want to thank you again for this great conversation.
16:22Really, really interesting.
16:23I can tell you're a really good teacher because like you were leading me along and it actually
16:28everything made sense.
16:29Music is such a huge part of our lives.
16:31Today, thanks to streaming platforms and social media, we're constantly exposed to songs.
16:37So I hope having a better understanding of why a song gets stuck in your head gives you
16:41a little more protection from songs you can't stand.
16:44And just maybe if you get a good song stuck in your head, you'll always have a song in your
16:49heart.
16:50Thanks for listening.
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