Almost everyone who listens to music has found themselves with a song stuck in their head that they just can’t get rid of. Well, now one doctor has revealed a surefire way to clear your brain of that earworm, and it just may surprise you.
During his radio show, Australian scientist Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki was asked how to get rid of an earworm by a woman who had Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” stuck in her head. The doc revealed one of the simplest ways is to chew gum, noting that it helps distract your brain. He shared, “For some unknown reason the same pathways in your brain that are used for programming your repeated jaw movement are also used for replaying music in your mind.”
Dr. Kruszelnicki also suggested a few other ways to get rid of an earworm, including “rinsing the brain” of the song by playing it repeatedly, or going cold turkey and not listening to it at all. Reading to yourself can also help, as can listening to a different song or playing an instrument.
And apparently not all songs can be earworms. Dr. Kruszelnicki says they are usually tunes from one’s culture, and they are normally faster than regular songs, with some amount of repetition and “unusual features.”
Source: The Sun