Waking up in the morning with the chorus of Beyoncé’s Halo stuck in your head is a common occurrence known as an earworm. By listening to the radio or music in general, you run the risk of being infected by this parasite.

Earworms (also called brainworms) are songs that get stuck in an individual’s head. It is typically a chorus or a popular lyric of the song. The piece of music is stuck on a phonological loop like a broken record player in the brain. Earworms are considered as being the brain singing a song. They are not an auditory hallucination like palinacousis, which is usually the echo of everyday sounds or voices.

The word “earworm” is derived from the German word “ohrwurm,” literally meaning “cognitive itch” or “musical itch.” The development of earworms has to do with the auditory functions of the temporal lobe. The temporal lobe of the brain, located near the temples, is associated with the interpretation of of sounds. Specifically, the primary auditory cortex in the temporal lobe facilitates interpretation, which is affiliated with verbal short term memory. According to James Kellaris, a professor at the University of Cincinnati, music incites an abnormal reaction that holds songs longer in the cortex than other sounds. The auditory cortex is activated when you listen to music and then reactivated whenever you think of the same piece of music. This reaction forces the brain to play the piece of music on loop, making it similar to a cognitive itch.

The inconsistency of earworms makes them difficult to study. Kellaris is one of the few people who has studied earworms. With his research, Kellaris discovered that earworms are an interaction between the mind and music. Any song can develop into an earworm depending on the person. Certain people, such as musicians and people who are stressed out and tired, are more prone to earworms. Musicians have constant exposure to music and individuals under stress usually have a more repeated thought process. According to Kellaris, 98 percent of people have experienced an earworm. A study from The Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition stated that 91 percent of people have reported having an earworm once a week, while 25 percent reported having one once a day.

Earworms can be annoying and distracting and they usually come and go as they please. Some methods such as listening or thinking of another song, or performing a strenuous activity such as working out distracts the mind from the earworm and eventually gets rid of it. Another method is completing the song all the way through to reduce the repetitive thinking. These “treatments” are not scientifically proven and consistent, but they may help with the constant loop of music.