Have a song stuck in your head? Here's how to get rid of it.

Photo: flickr/jonny goldsteinWe've all experienced it: the dreaded "earworm," in which a song keeps playing in your head long after you've heard it on the radio. The causes of this phenomenon are still unclear, although studies suggest that random events, sounds, and thoughts may be to blame, and it might happen more often when we are thinking too much or too little. But more important is knowing how how to get rid of this "involuntary musical imagery"--especially when you're already sick of hearing "Royals" on the radio, much less in your head. In this study, researchers surveyed a group of British subjects about how they get rid of earworms. The most common approaches were either exposure therapy -- that is, listening to the song in question -- or distraction. Interestingly, listening to a "cure tune" was a common approach, and the same cure tunes were actually reported by multiple people ...