Why 'The Birdie Song' won't fly away

Scientists believe they might be a step closer to understanding how certain banal pieces of music can gain an unwanted foothold in the brain.

The torture of "The Birdie Song'' or "Agadoo'' on repeat play in the mind may be explained by an area of the brain called the rostromedial prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for triggering musical memories. It is connected to the temporal lobe, which is involved in basic sound processing, and deals in cerebral processing and tracking as well as aiding reasoning and memory retrieval.

Researchers at the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire asked eight people to listen to an eight-minute melody that moved through all 24 major and minor keys.

They were asked to identify a test tone in the piece, audible in some keys but not in others. They were also required to detect sounds played by a flute-like instrument rather than a clarinet-like instrument. The subjects' responses to the hidden triggers were tracked to an area of the brain just behind the forehead.

The study concluded that this area of the brain was responsible for "mapping music", the journal Science reported.

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