Song stuck in your head? Chew some gum

Scientists call them earworms -- the annoying songs that play in our heads -- and chewing gum could be the best way to get rid of them, according to a team at the University of Reading in the UK.

Ninety-nine percent of individuals experience earworms and theories abound saying it's best to read a novel or attempt to solve a puzzle in order to move on.

Music triggers our brain's auditory cortex, which marks songs, giving way to a state in which we are able to fill in the rest of the melody.

Commonly called tune wedgies, earworms are a form of involuntary musical memory, says lead author Dr. Philip Beaman of U of R.

Chewing gum is similar to speaking inside your head, according to Dr. Beaman, the latter of which has been proven to interfere with short-term memory and auditory images -- yet another term for earworms.

In the first of three experiments, 44 participants listened twice to the chorus of the song "Play Hard" by David Guetta featuring Flo Rida and Akon, approximately the first 30 seconds.

They were given no gum, and the first time they were asked to try not to think about the music for three minutes after hearing it, but the next time no such restriction was set.

A computer keyboard was at their disposal in both circumstances and they were asked to press the 'q' key each time they thought of the song.

This was repeated with ELMA sugar-free mastic gym -- selected for its mild flavor and solid texture -- and participants were asked to chew vigorously.

This time, the 'q' key was pressed significantly less.

In the second experiment, 18 participants saw the same conditions with the exception that they were asked to differentiate whether they thought of the song itself or whether it was actually playing in their heads.

Participants thought of the song a little bit less if they were chewing the gum, but without the gum the song played significantly more times than with the gum.

The song "Payphone" by Maroon 5 set the tune for the third experiment and played until the end prior to the three conditions set before the 36 participants.

The same gum and gum-less conditions of the first experiment existed and a new condition required participants to tap repetitively using their dominant hand.

Once again, chewing gum proved to be more effective at suppressing earworms, with tapping better than doing nothing at all.

The study was published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.