Christmas music: it’s hard to escape this time of year. Whether you love it or hate it, you’ve probably had a holiday tune or two echoing in your head lately. Turns out, psychologists have an official name for this phenomenon: Involuntary Musical Imagery (INMI). While less formal terms range from “sticky music” to “melodymania,” songs that get stuck in our heads are usually referred to as earworms.

Image credit: Jamelah E. via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

There are nearly as many theories for why earworms occur as terms for the experience. Some argue they’re just your brain’s way of amusing itself when it’s not actively engaged- waiting in line at the department store, sitting at a traffic light, or writing out address labels. Another popular theory, first proposed by James Kellaris at the University of Cincinnati, describes earworms as a “cognitive itch-“ in an interview with BBC News, he describes especially catchy songs as having “properties that are analogous to histamines that make our brain itch… The only way to scratch a cognitive itch is to repeat the offending melody in our minds.”