EARWORMS

WHAT EXACTLY IS AN EARWORM?
IT'S THAT TUNE STUCK IN YOUR HEAD! 

 

NINETY-EIGHT PER CENT of us experience them. The incidence is equal between men and women - although the typical women's experience lasts longer and is more irritating. It usually lasts 15-30 seconds. And they occur most frequently in people who have an interest in music.

By the article heading and the above comic, you probably already know what I'm talking about - it's that song stuck in your head. But you maybe didn't know it was referred to as an EARWORM. And it's likely you didn't know that both Mark Twain and Arthur C. Clarke wrote short stories about this benign affliction.

In psychology and neuroscience research, the earworm is known technically as Involuntary Musical Imagery (INMI.) And it's a product of a brain system known as the Default Mode Network (DMN) that also generates daydreams and self-generated thoughts. The DMN kicks in when we're resting and/or not doing anything in particular.

My own experience with earworms extends into the dreamworld. On more than one occasion, I've been performing a song in a dream only to find to my surprise that an hour or so after awakening, I'm vaguely aware of a tune fragment playing over and over in my head - the same one I'd been playing in my dream!

Incidentally if you're plagued by a persistent earworm, a 2015 study at the University of Reading in England showed that simply chewing gum can block the annoyance!