Scientists may have found what makes a tune catchy, after locating the brain area where a song's "hook" gets caught. A US team from Dartmouth College, reported in the journal Nature, played volunteers tunes with snippets cut out. They scanned for brain activity and found it centred in the auditory cortex - which handles information from ears. When familiar tunes played, the cortex activity continued during the blanks - and the volunteers indeed said they still mentally "heard" the tunes.
