Got a Tune stuck in your Head?

What makes a catchy tune? How does a tune get stuck in your head? Basically, there are some songs that we all find catchy and easy to remember. But how do they get stuck there?

Well, researchers previously argued that catchy songs work by causing a "brain itch" that can only be scratched by repeating the tune. Now they have found that the auditory cortex (the part of the brain that handles the ears), plays a big part in this. Songs that are recognised or found familiar by the people in the study, resulted in increased brain activity in the auditory cortex. It was also found that music with lyrics and those without, affect the brain differently. Instrumental music seemed to require more processing to remember, while songs with words only required the more advanced parts of the audio processing stream. Which kinda explains why its easier for us to remember the words to a song than its tune.

Scientists may have found what makes a tune catchy, after locating the brain area where a song's "hook" gets caught.
A US team from Dartmouth College, reported in the journal Nature, played volunteers tunes with snippets cut out.

They scanned for brain activity and found it centred in the auditory cortex - which handles information from ears.

When familiar tunes played, the cortex activity continued during the blanks - and the volunteers indeed said they still mentally "heard" the tunes.

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