Sunday, June 22, 2008

On Dealing with Earworms

I've used the term earworm several times in this space. The generally accepted definition of this slang term is:
A song or song fragment that gets stuck in your head.

Recently, I saw a link to a small item in Wired that talks about how to deal with them, but I suspect that one of the remedies might strike some readers as a fate worse than the earworm itself. ;-)
Getting "Eye of the Tiger" stuck in your head is the result of a glitch in your auditory cortex. This part of your brain processes sounds and stores them for later recall. It powers up and can start crooning uncontrollably after hearing just a few notes of a familiar tune. Want it to stop? Listen to the whole song or do some math.
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