Introduction
Perhaps you’ve listened to a song, and it sounds very catchy. You start humming the tune, and before you know it, you can’t get it out of your head. Despite conscious attempts to eradicate the song from your head, it’s just too good to forget. What causes this phenomenon? Earworm, the name of this syndrome, usually gets stuck in your head by the brain’s attempt to fill a gap in the auditory cortex.
Background about these “gaps” and Ear Responsiveness
Gaps are formed by the organization of the auditory cortex. The primary auditory cortex is arranged in vertical columns, with each cell in each column responsive to the same sound frequency. Other nearby columns are organized based on frequencies from low to high.
You will notice that some sounds seem clearer and more pronounced in one ear, and other sounds are more pronounced in your other ear. This has to do with the arrangement of the auditory cortex. The specific sounds which your ears respond to vary from person to person, based on their perceptiveness and ability to hear sounds. Below are sounds listed and which ear responds based on my own tests. I have used a piano keyboard online to conduct these tests. The notes are all in order, and all tests were conducted with the note sustained and not sustained.
Deep C: Slightly heard more by the right ear.
C#/Db: Heard equally.
D: Heard equally.
D#/Eb: Significantly heard more by left ear.
E: Significantly heard more by left ear.
When you hear specific sounds in sequence, your brain finds it pleasing as it stimulates the auditory cortex equally. Therefore, most songs that are pleasing to your brain tend to fill up the auditory cortex and cause earworms.
Remedies
Earworms go away on their own after a while.
Conclusion
Earworms are interesting as they showcase how the auditory cortex can be easily fooled into repeating a song in your head. Extreme cases do cause insomnia, but most earworms are harmless, and some people enjoy them.
Sources:
- “Auditory Cortex” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_cortex
2. Kanluan, Pat. “Can’t Shake Off an Earworm?” Samitivejhospitals, 22 Apr 2020. https://www.samitivejhospitals.com/article/detail/stuck-song-syndrome
3.“Online Pianist” Virtual Piano Keyboard. https://www.onlinepianist.com/virtual-piano
Most Commented Posts