What happens in the brain when catchy songs get stuck in our head for days?
In: Biology
If we had true answers to stuff like this, we’d likely be using to train folks. At least musicians of not also doctors and scientists.
Not a ton of research has been done on the matter but basically we know that “catchier” songs are more popular on charts and such which kind of makes intuitive sense. We also know that there is a slight predisposition associated/corelated with music appreciation. Research also shows that the song parts that get stuck in heads tend to be 15 to 30 seconds long.
There’s other studies that suggest that simpler songs may be catchier. And that familiarity lends itself into catchyness. As an example that “somebody I used to know” song from a few years ago afflicted many people. That may partially be due to it’s similarities with “ba ba black sheep” that many children grew up with.
Along the lines of familiarity, the brain spends a lot of time predicting things so that it doesn’t have to react to new things all of the time. Music is rythmnic and patternistic. Brains love patterns. Patterns, routines, etc are all things our brains have evolved to be good at.. as such, folks may find themselves getting songs suck in their heads whole song routine activities such as jogging, driving, and cleaning.
I don’t have a biological answer for you. As far as I am concerned, the biology of the brain is all black magic.. and I am not really a psychologist either.
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