EARWORMS

Photo by: cyanocorax

 

NO! Not that kind... this kind:

 

 

Earworms

Earworms are those pesky songs that get stuck inside your head, repeating themselves over and over again.

Boston University defines an earworm as:   “the inability to dislodge a song and prevent it from repeating itself in one’s head." and calls the effect a "phonological loops" occurring in the primary auditory cortex as shown below:

Scientific American conducted a poll in which Disney's It's a small world after all was the obvious winner.  Now It's a small world doesn't do anything for me, not even a hint of an echo... but don't you dare play 88 Lines About 44 Women by the Nails or I'm Gonna Be by the Proclaimers.

I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more... DAMMIT!

Different songs seem to do it for different people, although there is a lot of commonality between us.  WebMD in their Top 10 list left number 1 as "Other, because everyone has his or her worst earworm." The rest of their list consisted of:

Chili's "Baby Back Ribs" jingle.
"Who Let the Dogs Out"
"We Will Rock You"
Kit-Kat candy-bar jingle ("Gimme a Break ...")
"Mission Impossible" theme
"YMCA"
"Whoomp, There It Is"
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
"It's a Small World After All" 

We Must Find A Cure

Sadly, I have a coworker who is infested with earworms, just this past week he was caught whistling "Zippety-Do-Dah", "If I only had a brain", "Entry of the Gladiators", and "A Spoonful of Sugar".  Left to his own devices he his likely to start humming anything, but his repertoire leans  towards Warner Brothers cartoons and Disney children's movies.

Earworms

Because I don't feel like talking about politics.  

What's in  your ear?