How do you get a song by heart?

You probably know it: a song that seems to be on ‘repeat’ in your head and that you will not get rid of. This phenomenon is known as an ‘earwig’, also called Stuck Song Syndrome in scientific literature. Because yes, research has been done. Also to how you get off again.

No less than 98 percent of people sometimes have an earwig, according to A Groningen article in the British Journal of General Practice (2016). Most people experience their earwigs as neutral or entertaining; She finds about 30 percent annoying. A small percentage even indicates to ‘go crazy’ and sleeping badly. But these people often also have other psychological complaints, according to the Groningen people.

American researchers have in 2023 in Music & Science All 47 known studies of earwigs listed. They are about all kinds of questions, such as: which music characteristics increase the chance that something will be an earwig? And are certain people more sensitive to it than others?

To start with that last question: the tendency to get earwigs is related to emotions, stress, experience, circumstances, personality – but the Americans found no correlations in it.

Countless studies have investigated what kind of melodies the greatest chance has an earwig. But such an investigation is very difficult, since the earwig is by definition ‘involuntary’: it is not subject to the will. As soon as you try to investigate the phenomenon, for example with brain scans, people start to get express melodies for the mind and that works differently, in your brain. Expressly imagined melodies sit in the sides of the cerebral cortex, which also control the processing and storage of ‘real’ auditory signals. But where the earwig nestles in the brain is not exactly known. In addition to the auditory bark, the working memory is probably also involved.

Classic themes

Earwig researchers are therefore mainly dependent on what people report themselves. For example about the songs that have sometimes become an earwig. The Americans could not discover a common denominator in it. So they are not specifically simple or cyclic melodies, as has been suggested, or enjoying it – something that is not defined, but strongly culturally and personally determined. Some people mainly report earwigs with words or sounds that you can sing along; Other instrumental fragments, such as well -known classic themes.

And how do you get rid of it again? The American article does not venture: that lingers in the earwig as “Perplexing Phenomenon”Without clear common denominators- and therefore also without a clear solution. The people of Groningen do have tips. Dealing with it relaxed is more promising than fighting it, they emphasize. Mindfulness or breathing techniques can help. There are also cognitive techniques, such as negative thoughts about your earwurm and then wanting to help you, or if you are acceting thoughts, thoughts, thoughts, or if you are able to think of accompanying thoughts, thoughts, or if you are able to think of accompanying thoughts, or if you are able to think of accompanying thoughts, or if you are able to use accuppting thoughts, and then you can use accuppting thoughts, or to be able to do it. Listen to other music, « even chew gum. »

BBC Magazine set ten Tips from readers in a row who fit in that street. « An internal silence cultivate » through meditation, for example. Take a bath. Visualize that you lift the needle of the gramophone record. Do a « ridiculously long tail sharing ». Or ‘Mahna Mahna‘Singing the Muppets – with the risk that it will be your new earwig.

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