The happy bird catches the earworm

Most people have had the experience, at one time or another, of getting a piece of music stuck in their head. 'Ear worms,' as they are known, are a relatively under-researched phenomenon but Andrea McNally-Gagnon from the University of Montreal has been looking into them. She asked French-speaking Internet users to rank 100 songs in terms of their ability to get stuck in one's head and you can find the top 25 at
http://www.brams.org/participer-a-nos-etudes/resultats/resultats-musique-obsedante
She also asked 18 musicians and 18 non-musicians to hum and record their earworms and note their emotional state before and after. The study found that earworms lasted longer in musicians than non-musicians. They tended to occur when the participants were in a positive emotional state and keeping busy with non-intellectual activities such as walking. Not surprisingly musicians could recall songs better than non-musicians but both groups were able to 'replay' songs with a remarkable degree of accuracy.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100526111334.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader