Got a song stuck in your head? Solving an anagram can help get rid of it

Home Top

American mother gunned down in Mali massacre: Aid worker is named as first victim after terrorists slaughtered 27 at hotel favored by Westerners leaving bodies piled up in gore-spattered corridors
'We didn't know how close we were to being killed': Revealed, the friends who survived Paris massacre because jihadi's AK-47 ran out of bullets in Mail's incredible video
Chris Christie in mystery security scare: His plane returns to the gate, passengers are searched and one man is taken off the flight after 'threatening' the New Jersey governor
'We shouldn't be scared - we are still going out': Defiant Parisians pack the streets of the French capital to honour of those killed exactly one week ago
Fingerprints now reveal that TWO of the Paris suicide bombers had entered Europe through Greece a month before the attacks
Pro-refugee protests are staged across the nation amid outrage at Trump for agreeing with 'Nazi-like' plan to make US Muslims register
UN Security Council approves 'all necessary measures' to fight the 'global and unprecedented threat' of ISIS in wake of Paris attacks
'Cowgirl' cousin did NOT blow herself up... but died when third ISIS terrorist detonated suicide vest standing next to her in Paris siege apartment, police reveal
Jihadi suspect arrested in Sweden after crossing Arctic Circle on a BICYCLE to sneak into Europe via the backdoor
Thousands of Canadians line the streets to pay tribute to ex-soldier who joined Kurdish militia and died fighting ISIS
Shadow of a bloody past: For centuries, Islam and Christianity were locked in a brutal conflict most have forgotten. The horror, a top historian argues, is that for jihadis it's as real today as it was in the Middle Ages
'The Islamist threat in this country is inside our gates': Kansas commissioner gives a slideshow presentation of criminals named Mohammed in 'warning' to citizens
'Christmas is a charade': Pope says atrocities such as Paris massacre have made festivities meaningless in a world which has chosen 'war and hate'
'This is for Paris': Russian pilots write messages of support for terror victims on their bombs before launching latest air raids and cruise missile strikes against ISIS
Air France plane traveling from Paris to San Francisco performs mystery u-turn over the English Channel and lands back at Charles de Gaulle airport
Panic at flagship Manhattan Apple Store as man terrorizes customers with a Samurai sword
CCTV shows massacre mastermind jump barriers and use Metro without a ticket as terror reigned across Paris
Brother of Paris mastermind was arrested in Morocco last month after arriving in his father's hometown and has been held in custody ever since
Newlywed couple let seven frightened strangers fleeing from the Paris terror attacks join them in their honeymoon suite for the night
The puppy who will grow up to be France's next Diesel: Little Dobrynia is donated by Russia as a sign of solidarity to replace hero canine killed by suicide jihadi
Mark Zuckerberg will take two months of paternity leave - six weeks MORE time off than Marissa Mayer took after birth and two months less than he offers his employees
Horrific details emerge in trial of student who 'raped and murdered his teacher' as the jury is shown the stick he 'used to assault her'
Drinking a few cups of coffee a day can stop you regaining weight after going on a diet, study finds
Air Force forced to write off brand new $115million gunship after pilot accidentally flew it UPSIDE DOWN during a test mission

Solving verbal puzzles can help force annoying songs from memory
Songs that get stuck in your head are called 'earworms'
Also found that Sudoku could help, as long as it isn't too difficult
The most persistent songs are from artists such as Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Rihanna

Published: 13:42 EST, 24 March 2013 | Updated: 20:04 EST, 24 March 2013

View
comments

It may not be the most serious of life’s problems, but an incredibly irritating one nonetheless – getting a pop song ‘stuck’ in your head, playing over and over.

And much like for a bout of the hiccups, there seem to be few cures for ‘stuck-song syndrome’. Even listening to other music can fail to expel the offending tune which, ironically, tends to be one we didn’t even like much in the first place.

Now scientists believe the phenomenon, technically known as an ‘earworm’, could have a remedy after all.

Two of Lady Gaga's hits Alejandro and Bad Romance are most likely to get stuck in your head

Beyonce is also guilty of making songs that get stuck in your head, particularly her hit Single Ladies

PUGH.jpg

They found that solving a simple verbal puzzles, such as anagrams, forces the annoying music out of our working memory.

Researchers at Western Washington University played catchy pop songs to volunteers and then gave them puzzles to work on. They found these made the ‘earworms’ disappear – with simple five-letter anagram puzzles, giving the best results.

While Sudoku could help also stop annoying tunes getting stuck, the puzzles had little effect if they were too difficult.

And any word games that were too tricky could also allow the irritating melodies back in, the experiments revealed.

Dr Ira Hyman, a music psychologist who conducted the study, said: ‘Verbal tasks like anagrams or reading a good novel seem to be very good at keeping earworms out.

However, he added, the key is to find something that will give the right level of challenge, where there is not much space left in the brain.

‘Something we can do automatically like driving or walking means you are not using all of your cognitive resource, so there is plenty of space left for that internal jukebox to start playing. You need to find that bit in the middle.’

Doing a puzzle like sudoku can help get the song out of your head, as long as it isn't too difficult

The researchers also found the most common earworms tend to be popular songs that are in the charts or are particularly well known.

They found Lady Gaga was the most common artist to get stuck, with Beyonce and The Beatles close behind.

The most catchy songs were: Alejandro and Bad Romance by Lady Gaga; Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen; Single Ladies by Beyoncé; She Loves You and I Wanna Hold Your Hand by The Beatles; SOS by Rihanna; You Belong with Me by Taylor Swift and Waterloo by Abba