Kathryn Rollins’ Take On The Earworm Effect...

Nationwide is on your side…

The Nationwide Insurance jingle sung by Jill Scott bugs me. It's not a personal statement against Jill Scott since she’s an incredibly talented singer. It's just irritating to watch her sing the words, "nationwide is on your side" acting like they're really soulful. I'd flip the channel if, it weren't for the fact that, when it airs, my husband (who knows how to make me laugh) closes his eyes and sways to and fro, snapping his fingers ever so slightly off beat. Yesterday though, I woke up to it playing in my head. Over and over again. And it was there all day long.

It's called an earworm (from the german word, "ohrwurm") which is a repetitive song that gets stuck in your brain. And although the experts have known that music is autobiographical, a new study from UC Davis shows that an earworm helps preserve the memory of music, as well as, the memory of life events happening while we're listening to certain songs. It's actually a naturally occurring memory process that helps preserve recent experiences in long-term memory. What's great is that these new findings could lead to the development of non-pharmaceutical, music-based interventions to help people suffering from dementia and other neurological disorders to better remember events, people and daily tasks. And, that's something that I'll happily "tune" in for.  

Here's to listening to music we love.
xo Kathryn
A Happy Balance