Lion Mind, Dog Mind and EARWORM MIND

Good morning Steemit Community!

I'm seeking your wisdom out there.

Lately, maybe because I've been on devices so often and won't give myself time to gather and control my thoughts, I've been having loops of music flickering in my mind for hours on end. It's usually particular moments of a tune that seem to stick and repeat in my mind, and replay over and over and over again.

Annoyingly and a bit comically, the Gaston song from Beauty and the Beast: "NOO one hits like Gaston, has a wit like Gaston, no one takes such exceptional SHITS like Gaston".....and so on, though it's mostly the rhythm and melody that gets stuck in my head rather than the lyrics.

The main theme from Tchaikovsky's March of Flowers (Nutcracker ballet) is another one of em that pops in unexpectedly, starting at 1:44 in this video.

Though having music in one's head can be a nice thing, it's best to be able to press the "play" and "pause" button on command. But often, even if I have stopped a song that I've noticed dancing around up there, it will soon commence again, leaving me a bit baffled and flustered.

A friend of mine told me a while back about the concept of lion mind and dog mind. From what I know, lion mind is the notion that we can get to a point mentally where we recognize thoughts passing through but don't necessarily follow every last thought to its end. It's a state of recognition and control, whereas dog mind is frenetically and somewhat impatiently jumping from thought to thought, unable to impose an overarching will over the state of the conscious.

Now I know this isn't uncommon. This phenomenon happens to most people evidently, and it's formal term is an earworm. This is not an image that sits too well with me but oh well. Why convey the image of some sort of slithering maggot in your ear rather than something a bit more palatable?

Earworms, or "involuntary musical imagery" were reported to occur in 90% of Finnish internet users according to an article in the journal Psychology of Music, with more musical people in general getting more tunes stuck in the ol' golova. Well, so far I fit the bill eh? Though I'm not from Finland, I work online, and I'm quite a musical person (I play trumpet, piano, harmonica, melodian (keys you blow into), and am always whistling when I'm alone).

Another study from that same journal Psychology of Music found that more familiar songs are more likely to become earworms. Other research suggests that the "stickiest" earworms tend to be songs with notes held for a long time with small intervals of pitch between them, (The Gaston song above is a perfect example of this), and that they tend to be songs that are easy to sing.

So what's happening when we have an earworm? It looks like the science is inconclusive.

Here is a diagram of the brain. Zoom your eyes in on the temporal lobe ('temporal' because it's located behind the temples), of which their are two, on the left and right side of the brain.

Within the temporal lobe, the auditory cortex of our brain is generally in charge of processing , receiving, and remembering sound.

So it makes sense that this region would be responsible for earworms, but this is not known for sure, and other regions such as the primary motor cortex (see burgundy strip behind the frontal lobe in 1st image of brain) have been implicated as well. An article in Nature in 2005 showed that the auditory cortex is active when people listen to music and the music is muted. So when the music stops, their auditory cortex is involved in filling in the gap, which is similar to what occurs in an earworm. In the case of an earworm, no music needs to play to initially "set up" the mind, but the mind is still generating the rhythm, melody, and sometimes lyrics of the song.

The motor cortex is involved in planning, and some research also suggests that it is the culprit of sticky music. When playing mental music, the brain has to plan/anticipate the next section of the song, for example a change in chord, in order to get it right.

Though I am seeking to find ways to get rid of my earworms, there has also been research that they're not all that bad. Perhaps they are a sign of a healthy mind that is remaining vigilant, according to Dr. Lauren Stewart, a psychologist at Goldsmiths University. From an article in Science Focus, Dr. Stewart says, “I like to think of earworms as a homeostatic [regulatory] function. If your consciousness slips too low, you’re in all sorts of trouble because you’re not vigilant to the dangers around you,” she explains, referring to Oliver Sacks’ near-death experience on a mountain. “So these internal thoughts might provide enough stimulation so that you’re maintaining an optimal level of vigilance.”

Anyway, from the looks of it, it appears that focusing too much on getting rid of you earworm can actually make it worse. A study in the British Journal of Psychology in 2010 showed that many subjects who journaled about their earworms found them harder to get rid of if they deliberately tried to force them off. So maybe I should just end my writing now to evade a similar fate as these British souls. It's a bit of a catch 22. Like trying to fall asleep, trying to remove an earworm may be a fruitless strategy. It's probably best just to get the mind occupied by other endeavors and have the earworm dissipate away naturally.

I haven't pursued too many strategies yet (besides chewing gum which may be surprisingly effective), but I'd appreciate any and all suggestions!

Hope you enjoyed, and have a nice weekend!

http://www.sciencefocus.com/article/mind/cant-get-you-out-my-head-%E2%80%93-science-earworms
http://www.livescience.com/58120-why-songs-get-stuck-in-head.html
http://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/why-do-songs-get-stuck-in-our-heads/
https://audiblerange.com/science-technology/the-science-behind-earworms/