Ohrwurm

Ohrwurm, or earworm, is the phenomenon of a short piece of music that repeatedly and involuntarily plays in a person’s mind. The term comes from German, literally meaning “ear worm.” In English, the phenomenon is often described as an earworm or as involuntary musical imagery (INMI).

Most earworms are brief, catchy tunes or fragments—often a chorus—that can linger for minutes to hours after the music has stopped. They are commonly triggered by recent listening, exposure to a familiar song in public, or hearing a few notes that resemble a memorable motif. While usually harmless, earworms can be distracting or irritating in certain situations.

Mechanistically, INMI is linked to working memory and auditory imagery. Brain activity studies point to involvement of the auditory cortex and memory-related areas, with additional engagement of networks that support attention and, in some cases, reward processing. The likelihood and duration of an earworm can be influenced by mood, context, and how attention-grabbing or emotionally salient the tune is.

Management strategies vary and are typically simple. People often resolve earworms by listening to the complete song, switching to a different task, or focusing on a non-musical activity. Some find relief in singing or playing another melody, or in using distracting activities such as mental exercises or chewing gum.

Ohrwurms are common across cultures and ages and are studied within the broader field of involuntary musical imagery, illustrating how music is encoded, stored, and retrieved in human memory.