“Earworm”: It Isn’t Just About Music
Bilge Ebiri asks: ‘Do you know what an “earworm†is? It’s the name for those songs that get stuck in your head. Like when you walk through your day with “Walk like an Egyptian†or something echoing incessantly inside your mind, and you wonder how it happened, since you don’t even like that song. There’s a lot of science and speculation around earworms and how they work, but one theory has it that they’re a form of cognitive itch: Basically, your memory of the song is imperfect — it’s missing something — and the brain, without any real prompting from you (or “you,†since your brain effectively is you) plays the song over and over in your head to get it right.’
