HANOVER, N.H. (AP) – Researchers at Dartmouth College are a step closer to understanding why annoying songs get stuck in your head.

In a study published in last week’s Nature, Dartmouth scientists identified the part of the brain that holds onto musical memories and enables a familiar tune to continue in a person’s head after the music stops.

“What’s interesting to us is what’s going on in your head when you’ve got a song stuck in your head,” said graduate student David Kraemer.

Study participants listened to excerpts of songs while researchers recorded their brain activity. They found that when snippets of familiar songs were cut out, people could not help but continue the songs in their heads.

“We didn’t instruct the participants to try to imagine the song or anything like that,” Kraemer said. “It was a natural reaction they had to songs that they’re familiar with.”

The researchers learned that the brain stores musical memories in the auditory cortex, which is the part of the brain that processes sound information. They also discovered differences in how the brain reconstructs instrumental music compared to music with lyrics.

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