The mind's musical earThe mind's musical ear
All In The Mind
How good are you at imagining or hearing music in your head? Can you think of the tune to ‘Happy Birthday’ and bring the notes to mind without actually singing? We consider the mind’s musical ear and what it reveals about us. And ... earworms—those pesky songs stuck in your head—where they come from and persuading them to leave.
29:08•1 Mar 2020
The Mind’s Musical Ear: Imagining Sound, Earworms and a Hint of Addiction
Episode Overview
- Musical imagery involves motor regions sending signals to auditory regions, effectively instructing the brain what to "hear" internally.
- Ability to change and control sounds in the mind predicts performance on pitch–imagery tasks more than formal musical training.
- Musicians often imagine not only sound but movement, sheet music, emotion and crowd response, creating a rich inner performance before going on stage.
- Earworms can be triggered by mood, low mental load, recent listening and memory cues, and may be reduced by engaging the jaw with chewing gum.
- Repetition increases enjoyment and understanding of music, but overplaying a favourite track can "kill" the song for a while.
“Anyone I know that does this for a living, it’s like an addiction… it’s just like this whole world that consumes you.”
What secrets to maintaining sobriety can be uncovered from understanding how our brains play music on loop? This episode of *All In The Mind* turns up the volume on the "mind’s musical ear" and shows just how busy the brain gets with even the simplest tune. Singer–songwriter and doctor Gordie (Sophie Payton) shares how imagining music is central to her creative life.
She talks about writing her song *Heaven I Know* while driving between medical placements, replaying a phone recording of "one, two, three, one, two, three" and building the rest of the track entirely in her head before it ever reached the studio. For her, "music was just, you know, it was like speaking" and the pull of sound feels "like an addiction"—a familiar idea if you’ve ever felt consumed by a habit.
Host Sana Kadar chats with cognitive neuroscientist Dr Rebecca Gelding, who has mapped what happens in the brain when people imagine music rather than physically hear it. Using brain scans, she found that when people imagine sound, information flows from motor regions down to auditory regions, effectively "telling the auditory regions what to hear". People who are better at this internal music may even be better at anticipating sounds, which could one day link to protecting hearing as we age.
You’ll also hear about quirky experiments using scales and arrows on a screen, why some people ace these musical puzzles while others struggle, and how the ability to change sounds in your mind predicts performance more than formal musical training. There’s plenty on earworms too—what triggers those songs that won’t leave your head, why repetition makes music feel so good, and why chewing gum might be your unlikely escape.
If you’ve ever wondered why a song feels as irresistible as a craving, or why certain tunes stick while others fade, this episode might leave you asking: what’s playing inside your head right now?
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