Involuntary musical imagery (IMI), commonly referred to as earworms, is a cognitive phenomenon whereby fragments of music repeat in the mind without deliberate initiation. This experience is both ...

The scientific literature considers music either as an abstract stimulus, devoid of explicit meaning, or a universal language. Music listening rarely involves exclusive focus on the sounds themselves.

Imagining a song triggers similar brain activity as moments of silence in music, according to a pair of studies recently published in JNeurosci. The results reveal how the brain continues responding ...