Have you ever been waiting in line at the grocery store,
你是否曾经在杂货店里排队等候，
innocently perusing the magazine rack, when a song pops into your head?
毫无念头的浏览着杂志书架时，有一首歌在你的脑海里响起？
Not the whole song, but a fragment of it that plays and replays
不是整首歌，而是部分片段一遍接著一遍回响在耳边，与拍子分秒不差的契合，
until you find yourself unloading the vegetables in time to the beat.
直到你发现到自己将蔬菜取出来结帐。
You've been struck by an earworm, and you're not alone.
你已经受扰于耳朵虫，而且你不是一个人。
Over 90% of people are plagued by earworms at least once a week,
超过90%的人每个礼拜至少有一次会受到耳朵虫的侵扰，
and about a quarter of people experience them several times a day.
而大概有四分之一的人每天会经历好几遍。
They tend to burrow in during tasks that don't require much attention,
他们会在工作不是太需要注意力时沈浸其中，
say, when waiting on water to boil or a traffic light to change.
比如在等待水煮开的时候或是等待交通信号灯转换时。
This phenomenon is one of the mind's great mysteries.
此现象是人类脑袋里最神秘的事情。
Scientists don't know exactly why it's so easy for tunes to get stuck in our heads.
科学家们也不清楚曲调会如此轻易地深植于我们脑海里的原因。
From a psychological perspective, earworms are an example of mental imagery.
从心理学角度来看，耳朵虫是心理的假想。
This imagery can be visual, like when you close your eyes and imagine a red wagon, or it can be auditory,
这种假想可以是视觉性的，就像当你闭上眼睛想像一辆红色的货车；或者也可能是声乐性的假想，
like when you imagine the sound of a baby screaming, or oil sizzling in a pan.
就像当你在想像着婴儿哭泣的声音，或是像平底锅里油吱吱做响的声音。
Earworms are a special form of auditory imagery because they're involuntary.
耳朵虫是特殊的声乐性假想，因为这些音乐会不由自主地回响起。
You don't plug your ears and try to imagine "Who Let the Dogs Out," or, well, you probably don't.
你不必堵住耳朵然后试图想像“是谁放出狗的？”这首歌，或者，你大概什么也不需要做。
It just intrudes onto your mental soundscape and hangs around like an unwanted house guest.
它恰恰可以侵入进你内心的声乐天地，而且就像个不请自来的客人在你的脑中到处晃荡。
Earworms tend to be quite vivid and they're normally made up of a tune, rather than, say, harmonies.
耳朵虫是相当鲜明的，一般来说它们由旋律组成，而不是合声。
A remarkable feature of earworms is their tendency to get stuck in a loop, repeating again and again for minutes or hours.
耳朵虫的奇特之处在于它像陷在绕圈圈般不断重复的倾向，不断重复播放长达数分钟或数小时之久。
Also remarkable is the role of repetition in sparking earworms.
同样引人注意的是重复播放在触发这些音乐所发挥的功用。
Songs tend to get stuck when we listen to them recently and repeatedly.
当我们在近期内不断重复地听到这些歌时，很可能会让你无法摆脱。
If repetition is such a trigger, then perhaps we can blame our earworms on modern technology.
如果重复拨放是导火索，那也许我们可以把耳朵虫现象归咎于现代科技。
The last hundred years have seen an incredible proliferation of devices that help you listen to the same thing again and again.
在过去100年里，我们看到可以使你一再重复听取相同内容的电子设备在不可思议般的激增。
Records, cassettes, CDs, or streamed audio files.
比如说唱片、卡式录音带、CD片、串流音乐等。

Have these technologies bread some kind of unique, contemporary experience,
这些技术真的带来了某种独有的、短暂的体验吗？
and are earworms just a product of the late 20th century?
耳朵虫只是二十世纪末才有的产物吗？
The answer comes from an unlikely source: Mark Twain.
答案来自于一个我们猜不到的人：马克吐温。
In 1876, just one year before the phonograph was invented,
在1876年的时候，正是留声机被发明的前一年，
he wrote a short story imagining a sinister takeover of an entire town by a rhyming jingle.
他写了一篇短文，想像着押着韵的叮铛声凶兆般的掌控住整个城镇。
This reference, and others, show us that earworms seem to be a basic psychological phenomenon,
这个描述以及其他的内容向我们说明了耳朵虫看起来像是一种很普通的心理现象，
perhaps exacerbated by recording technology but not new to this century.
也许录音技术令其变得更加严重了，但绝非是本世纪的新玩意儿。
So yes, every great historical figure, from Shakespeare to Sacajawea, may well have wandered around with a song stuck in their head.
从莎士比亚到萨卡加维，每一位伟大的历史人物也许都有一首歌盘踞在脑袋里四处乱晃。
Besides music, it's hard to think of another case of intrusive imagery that's so widespread.
除了音乐以外，很难想到另一个如此广泛的侵扰式假想案例。
Why music? Why don't watercolors get stuck in our heads? Or the taste of cheesy taquitos?
为什么是音乐？为什么不是水彩画留在我们的脑海？又或是墨西哥起司卷饼的味道？
One theory has to do with the way music is represented in memory.
有个理论提及了音乐在记忆里呈现的方法。
When we listen to a song we know, we're constantly hearing forward in time, anticipating the next note.
当我们听着一首熟悉的歌，我们经常听到比当下正播放的要更后面，预料着下一个音符。
It's hard for us to think about one particular musical moment in isolation.
单单想着一个特定的音乐桥段对我们来说是困难的。
If we want to think about the pitch of the word "you" in "Happy Birthday,"
假使我们要去想 "you" 这个字在生日快乐歌里的音调，
we have to start back at "Happy," and sing through until we get to "you."
我们必须回到"Happy"来开始一直唱下去，直到我们唱到"you"。
In this way, a tune is sort of like a habit.
这样来说曲调就有一点像是一个习惯。
Just like once you start tying your shoe, you're on automatic until you tighten the bow, once a tune is suggested because,
就好像是打从你开始绑鞋带直到你绑好蝴蝶节前是不假思索的，一但想到某个调子，
for example, someone says, "my umbrella," we have to play through until it reaches a natural stopping point, "ella, ella, ella."
例如因为某人说了“My unbrella”，我们就得在脑中播放歌曲，直到唱到了原本的停顿处。
But this is largely speculation.
不过这充其量也只是一个猜测。
The basic fact remains we don't know exactly why we're susceptible to earworms.
事实上我们仍未确切地明白为什么我们会这么容易受到耳朵虫的影响。
But understanding them better could give us important clues to the workings of the human brain.
但是更清楚认识它们可以给我们有关人类大脑运作的重要线索。
Maybe the next time we're plagued by a Taylor Swift tune that just won't go away,
也许下回我们受扰于盘踞于脑内久久不去的泰勒歌曲，
we'll use it as the starting point for a scientific odyssey that will unlock important mysteries about basic cognition.
我们会利用它来当一段科学旅程的开端，那将会解开基本认知的重大迷团。
And if not, well, we can just shake it off.
假若不行，我们就忘了它吧。