Earworm :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Earworm The Song That Wont Leave Your HeadI woke up and I was mortified. It was the low thing in my mind when I opened my eyes and I just could not believe this silly little thing had give-up the ghost as involuntary as breathing. I tried an some other song, exclusively it would come back without me realizing it. I walked to work and it came with me, I sat in class and it spoke louder that my professors voice, I even took a nap and it unplowed me awake. I had a stupid song stuck in my head and it wouldnt go away. What is it that happens in the brain that causes this annoyance to go on for days? And why does it remain in the head even when its driving us so crazy that we want to scream in pain? According to query done by Professor James Kellaris at the University of Cincinnati, (1) getting songs stuck in our heads happens to most if not all of us. His theory shows that certain songs create a sort of cognitive itch - the mental equivalent of an itchy back. So, the all way to scrat ch a cognitive itch is to rehearse the responsible for(p) argument mentally. 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 confine in a cycle from which they seem unable to escape.But why does this happen? App arntly, repetition, musical simplicity and incongruity are partly responsible for the annoyance. (2) A repeated phrase, motif or sequence might be suggestive of the very act of repetition itself, such that the brain echoes the drill automatically as the musical information is processed. Still, simpler songs appear more probable to make your brain itch, - like Barnnys I love you, you love me melody - but at the same time a song that does something unlooked-for can cause the brain to latch on because of whatever unconscious cognitive incident occurred at tha t very moment. These traits of simplicity, repetition and circular composition1 are potent because we dont remember songs as one complete watch, like a picture, but as temporal sequences that unfold in our brains. (3) In other words, we dont see an entire song in our head instead, one image (or line in a song) triggers the subsequent one.