• April 29, 2024

Can not you get rid of the latest fashion song, even if it's not to your liking? Or can not you find an explanation of why you hum the songs? A study of University of Cincinnati reveals that sticky melodies have some characteristics that generate a "cognitive itching”.

According to the investigation, directed by James J. Kellaris, associate professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati, the sticky songs adhere to the auditory cortex of the brain, which is responsible for processing the sounds.

This mechanism generates a brain itching that is relieved by the mental repetition of the melody. "The process starts involuntarily. When the brain detects an incongruity or a different detail in the musical stimulus, "says Kellaris.

The specialist details that it is like a metaphor of itching and scratching; The only way to scratch that cognitive itch is when the song is repeated, either mentally or by humming it.

Keys to create a sticky song

The specialist details that through the study he tries to identify the characteristics of the sticky music known as earworm, so your reference are the following three reasons:

1. Repetition. "A repeated phrase generates an echo in the brain, which creates the need to hum it automatically during different times of the day," says the expert.
2. Musical simplicity . Simple melodies with intense or stimulating rhythms increase cerebral itching. Therefore, children's songs are more likely to stay recorded in the mind than classical music.
3. Incongruity. When a song has unexpected notes it generates the need to repeat or hum it, as one experiences when listening to the soundtrack of the film Mission Impossible:

95% of respondents experience the phenomenon

James J. Kellaris points out that in the survey conducted to a thousand people to understand why we hummed the songs, it was recorded that 95% of people have experienced the phenomenon, of which 50% do so frequently.

Although the majority of the population is susceptible to remembering sticky music, it is more common in women and musicians.

The people hum in 73.7% the songs with lyrics, 18.6% jingles or announcements and instrumental melodies in a 7.7%. And you, what song do you hum the most?

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