Australian pop princess Kylie Minogue's music may be more than ear candy, as scientists are hoping to use her aptly-titled and catchy hit "Can't Get You Out of My Head" to trigger memories in Alzheimer's and dementia patients, the Daily Mail reports.
Songs that get stuck in your head are known as "earworms," and while they can become a nuisance for some, the memorable musical fragments may prove useful for patients who struggle with memory loss.
Scientists hoping to find the catchiest tune of them all for a new project recently polled 700 people, including atress and model Lily Cole, TV presenter Carol Vorderman, broadcaster Janet Street Porter and Science Minister David Willetts, and Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" came in first, followed closely by "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke and "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk.
ABBA's "SOS" and Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" were also contenders, along with "The Birdie Song" by Tweets and "Woke Up in the Morning" by Alabama 3 and "Love Me Two Times" by Aerosmith.
"Understanding catchy music is about much more than just a recipe for next week's number one hit: It's the key to understanding why musical memories last a lifetime," computational musicologist John Ashley Burgoyne, one of the researchers working on the music experiment organized by Manchester Science Festival, told the Daily Mail. "Catchy music sticks in your head and lingers there. When you hear catchy music again years or even decades later, all of a sudden the song comes back to and you find yourself singing along in your head."
Alistair Burns of the University of Manchester's Institute of Brain Behavior and Mental Health predicts the musical project may be revolutionary for dementia sufferers, helping them to preserve parts of their memory by frequently listening to earworms.
Many dementia support groups use music singing and personalized playlists to help those with failing memory," Burns told the Daily Mail, in reference to The Alzheimer Society's Singing For the Brain project. "The results could certainly have implications for improving the quality of life for people with dementia."
