I have an i-pod in my head

[themadscientist]

I don't claim to be a genius. I'm very smart and clever, yes, but all I need is a basic algebra problem to ensure I don't get too full of myself. I must say though, the method in which my brain works continues to amaze me. I hope the rest of you can take the time to step outside yourself for a moment and look at how you think objectively. The brain is an incredible device and I bet you will be impressed at the things yours does every day that you never gave it credit for. Nala, you might creep yourself out.

Anyway, back to my CPU. One of the things I can do that I noticed a long time ago and have since tried to use frequently to improve the ability is remember songs. Now, I don't know how that data presents in other people's noggin, lyric sheets, or actual sound, but in mine I can actually hear it just like it was playing on the radio. Every lyric (that I remember) in the same tone and style, every drum beat, every guitar lick. It's really cool because if I can quiet down my mind, and that is very hard to do, I can listen to songs like I have my own i-pod implanted in my brain.

The really interesting thing is, I usually wake up each day with some random song in my head that I usually whistle all day long. This leads me to believe that my mad-pod powers up on shuffle when I awake. I can still think of songs on purpose and get the normal clarity, but if I go back to external tasks I will usually find "today's selection" back in rotation.

I like so many different styles of music that it really is a mix tape from hell. For example, here is yesterday's tune.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5_QV97eYqM[/youtube]

And here is the one rattling around in my grape as I type this.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLo957Z7FpU[/youtube]

Hopefully your brain can't recall Rebeca Black songs.

[Razi]

You might have a mild case of sound hallucination!
Most of the cases show up in people that are deaf, but can also happen to people like yourself when you can quiet everything down.

I also have a random song stuck in my head in the morning, though not as vivid, and it's usually a small section of the song that keeps repeating.

[krimsonviper]

I usually hate this when it happens to me. Mostly because I get just a particular part of a song and I don't know the actual lyrics, but more just the beat and a bit of the chorus.

Mad, you're mad!

[themadscientist]

You might have a mild case of sound hallucination!
Most of the cases show up in people that are deaf, but can also happen to people like yourself when you can quiet everything down.

Holy crap, that's an actual thing!
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/359

It is believed that the main cause for these musical hallucinations is from the brain not receiving enough sound stimulation. The music processing area of the brain is continuously looking for signals in the brain that they can interpret but if the patient lives alone, or is suffering from hearing impairment; there is no sound to be heard. This seems similar to the mismatch between the sensory and corollary discharge. The brain is anticipating one sort of stimulation and is actually, in this case, not receiving any.

It is particularly interesting that the brain appears to be stimulated in the same areas when hallucinating sound as when actually listening to music. Some patients were able to identify exactly who the singer of the song in their head was as well as they key the music was in.[6] If it is possible to have such an accurate replay of music in our head, and considering our current society is constantly flooded with music, from the grocery store to I-pods, is it possible that we may one day stop being able to distinguish between this music in our head and the music playing around us?

I know that when I turn on music I can get better work done. This is seriously eye-opening because I know I got the ADD and have difficulty focusing for long periods. Now that I think about it, when I turn on music I can work better. Perhaps I don't have anything other than a hungry brain that craves stimuli and the music satisfies it and thus allows me to focus. It would also explain why in the absence of stimuli my brain flips on its i-pod. COOL!

Thank you for introducing me to this, I learned more about myself today.

[Razi]

No problem! I think it's pretty awesome.
And the volume varies from person to person, some people even report that it's like standing in front of the speakers are a concert, and sometimes the tempo speeds up.
Which might become annoying.

[themadscientist]

Here is what I have so far as this hypothesis takes shape. These Eureka moments are few and far between, but so worth the wait.

I have always described my head as sounding like a party with a bunch of people talking at once, sort of a white noise. I know this to be a manifestation of all the thoughts my overactive brain is processing simultaneously. When in a crowd conversations sometimes peak over the general crowd noise and you can clearly hear a snippet of the conversation. If you can recall the way I can flip from seemingly unrelated subjects instantly and hit the ground running that is what the external manifestation is. I hear it above the din and it's a process in motion that I turn up the volume on and the next thing I know it's out there as speech and I am interacting with the thought.

Now, as I said, I only hear music when my brain is quiet. I never realized it, but when someone is used to a certain situation the sudden absence of it can be unsettling and they will seek the comfort of the familiar. A person who grew up in the city with all the constantly competing noises would probably find a quiet country morning a roar of silence and feel stifled. My brain is a rave club on saturday night most of the time so in those moments when I must focus completely on something, to force it into an externally defined task I get bored and my brain starts trying to insinuate some more thoughts in to raise the activity and I lose concentration on the primary task. Sounds a lot like the classic symptoms of ADD, doesn't it?

I have always looked at ADD and many of the other "syndromes" as scientific ego-padding. "Timmy can't pay attention, there must be something wrong with him." Not necessarily, you might just be really f*** boring and you can't deal with that possibility so you invent a malady and afflict the child with it so you can restore the balance of power by "helping him." This is supported by the fact that what does ADD medication do? It dopes you up and slows you down. It makes the child slow down to the pace of the authority figure rather than challenge the authority figure to accelerate up to the pupils' speed which, I argue, is what a great teacher does.

Ironic and unintended representative tangent concluded, back to the original train of thought. We have established that my brain is loud. We have the beginnings of a theory that in absence of the din or in times of impressed focus on singular tasks it rebels out of frustration and boredom. It does this by introducing distracting thoughts, but also through the recitation of music.

I appear to have substantiated this hypothesis without realizing it. I need to study for a class today. When I sit down to do that I will do what has become my process. I will turn on my computer and open my book, crack an RC cola and then turn on the TV! I will fire up my Apple TV, find an online radio station that pleases me and let it play at a certain level where I am aware of it, but not so much that it demands my focus. Holy s***, I'm giving my brain a cookie so it will eat its vegetables! I never realized why I felt the need to do this! At work, I prefer to be alone in my office with the music playing and even the most mundane infuriatingly boring tasks are not the least bit problematic for me. Some of my best work is done with heavy metal shrieking in the background because I need it to concentrate.

I'm 39, society suggests I should know everything about me by now. I have never thought that a legitimate expectation for anyone with any sort of interesting personality and this is just one more example of the amazing human mind. Just when you think you have it figured out you open the last closed door and there is a hallway filled with 100 new doors to be opened!

[Razi]

I have always looked at ADD and many of the other "syndromes" as scientific ego-padding. "Timmy can't pay attention, there must be something wrong with him." Not necessarily, you might just be really f**king boring and you can't deal with that possibility so you invent a malady and afflict the child with it so you can restore the balance of power by "helping him." This is supported by the fact that what does ADD medication do? It dopes you up and slows you down. It makes the child slow down to the pace of the authority figure rather than challenge the authority figure to accelerate up to the pupils' speed which, I argue, is what a great teacher does.

Too many kids at my high school would say things like "Omg, I can't pay attention, I must have ADD.", and I'd agree how hard it is to pay attention in this class, then they'd say I have ADD as well, and I just say "No, this teacher is just boring and extremely uninteresting, I bet that 'ADD' of yours goes away when you're doing something you enjoy."
Then they nod and look nonplussed.

Also, +1 to the background noise.
Sometimes I need background noise to do my work.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

Stuff

Agreed, except most ADD medications are stimulants.

[Jesda]

I have a Faith Hill song stuck in my head. *shrug*

Its been playing the same annoying hook for 3 days straight

[themadscientist]

I just got up and making my obligatory two cups of Starbucks Sumatra it appears Yes' Changes will be my soundtrack for the day.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_yh22mc ... re=related[/youtube]

[carloslebaron]

themadscientist,

Years ago I used to try new things, and what attracted me a lot was the illusions created by several internal and external stimuli...so, I decided to fast for a while, and besides losing weight nothing else came out...

But, few months later I did the next, I didn't sleep for days.

And guess what, I thing the brain goes crazy, because I started to "hear voices". I was eating normally, doing my job normally, watching TV and goin places normally, but without drugs of any kind, I stayed up for five days...at day three is when I started to hear voices, like people talking to each other...

I guess that you are also are experimenting with your brain capabilities, is fun, but I guess no one will understand you...

[CA18DER]

The same things happen to me. I can even playback a full song in my head after only hearing it one time. I'm the type who doesn't get much rest because my imagination overflows while I lay down and try to fall asleep. I often wake up in the morning with a random song playing in my head that is as clear as day, and that I don't even recall ever hearing. I wonder if it is even a real song or not, to the point where I get online and google the lyrics... only to find out it is a real song that I never even recall existing. Sometimes I dream about a song, movie, or videogame and it of course seems like it really exists, so much that I look it up online when I wake up in the morning... but it does not exist. Then I kick myself in the a** later on in the day when I forget the details. I should record my dreams in a log.

The brain is far more complex than the average person thinks, it stores EVERYTHING! Something just has to trigger a thought or memory that you forgot existed. Memory is not erased by time, it just gets shuffled into a massive pile.

[themadscientist]

Working on reports today this one kept looping in my head. Yes, I'm old; f*** off!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsoLb-E7oy8[/youtube]

[MellowZ32]

Hopefully your brain can't recall Rebeca Black songs.

Now that song is stuck in my head.

[themadscientist]

Today we appear to want to RISE!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzpNQP6LUaQ[/youtube]