<p><a href="http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/11/2579.full" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Janata's (2009) study</a> might be of interest to you. Specifically the paper proposes that the Media Pre-Frontal Cortex (MPFC) &quot;...associates music and memories when we experience emotionally
salient episodic memories that are triggered by familiar songs from
our personal past.&quot;</p>
<p><strong>References</strong>:</p>
<p>Janata, P. (2009). The neural architecture of music-evoked autobiographical memories. Cerebral Cortex, 19(11), 2579-2594. <a href="http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/11/2579.full" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/11/2579.full</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-02-11T15:00:44.957Z
2013-02-12T01:31:56.393Z
2020-06-17T09:55:31.633Z
Tunde Olatunji
<p>I believe this phenomenon is well known in cognitive science. That is how our memory works.</p>

<p>The simpliest explanation would be the Hebbian learning rule: "Neurons that fire together, wire together." So, you can imagine some neurons firing when you hear the music and some when you see the game. Now, if these used to fire together, they are probably connected. Somehow you've learned that these stimuli come together and your brain is recalling them all even if this time only the audio stimulus is presented.</p>

<p>Try reading more about episodic memory:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>For example, memories of people’s faces, the taste of the wine, the music that was playing, etc, might all be part of the memory of a particular dinner with friends. By repeatedly reactivating or “playing back” this particular activity pattern in the various regions of the cortex, they become so strongly linked with one another that they no longer need the hippocampus to act as their link, and the memory of the music that was playing that night, for example, can act as an index entry, and may be enough to bring back the entire scene of the dinner party.
  <a href="http://www.human-memory.net/types_episodic.html" rel="noreferrer">Episodic and semantic memory</a></p>
</blockquote>

<p>However, auditory triggers are possibly not the strongest available. According to an idea called "Proustian phenomenon" the strongest would be smell.
Example study to that matter:
<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699931.2011.555475" rel="noreferrer">Proust revisited: Odours as triggers of aversive memories</a></p>

<p><hr></p>

<h2>Reference:</h2>

<p>Toffalo, M.B.J., Smeets, M.A.M., van den Hout, M.A. (2012).  Proust revisited: Odours as triggers of aversive memories.  <em>Cognition &amp; Emotion, 26</em>(1):83-92.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-09-17T11:53:21.513Z
2012-09-21T06:56:41.280Z
2012-09-21T06:56:41.280Z
Oriesok Vlassky
<p><strong>Background</strong>:
If I like a particular song, I listen to it while doing other things until I get sick of that song. This creates an extremely strong bond between the two things: the song and the activity. The activities usually being programming languages or video games. Whenever I hear the song again, the emotions and/or visuals of whatever I was doing flood my brain, and I can remember them vividly.</p>

<h3>Questions</h3>

<ul>
<li>How does hearing a song trigger memories associated with that song?</li>
<li>Is there anything special about songs and memory associations?</li>
<li>Has any particular research been conducted on the association between songs and memory?</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-09-16T04:10:16.947Z
"is there any research done on this?" is an extremely vague question. I like your motivation in the post, but can you ask a more specific question? One that is informed by your [initial research](http://meta.cogsci.stackexchange.com/q/66/29).
Artem Kaznatcheev
<memory><music>
How do songs trigger memories associated with previous experiences of listening to the  song?
itdoesntwork
# How do songs trigger memories associated with previous experiences of listening to the  song?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-09-16)

**Background**:
If I like a particular song, I listen to it while doing other things until I get sick of that song. This creates an extremely strong bond between the two things: the song and the activity. The activities usually being programming languages or video games. Whenever I hear the song again, the emotions and/or visuals of whatever I was doing flood my brain, and I can remember them vividly.

### Questions

* How does hearing a song trigger memories associated with that song?
* Is there anything special about songs and memory associations?
* Has any particular research been conducted on the association between songs and memory?

**Tags:** memory, music

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: "is there any research done on this?" is an extremely vague question. I like your motivation in the post, but can you ask a more specific question? One that is informed by your [initial research](http://meta.cogsci.stackexchange.com/q/66/29).  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2012-09-17. Score: 9 | Accepted answer

I believe this phenomenon is well known in cognitive science. That is how our memory works.

The simpliest explanation would be the Hebbian learning rule: "Neurons that fire together, wire together." So, you can imagine some neurons firing when you hear the music and some when you see the game. Now, if these used to fire together, they are probably connected. Somehow you've learned that these stimuli come together and your brain is recalling them all even if this time only the audio stimulus is presented.

Try reading more about episodic memory:

> For example, memories of people’s faces, the taste of the wine, the music that was playing, etc, might all be part of the memory of a particular dinner with friends. By repeatedly reactivating or “playing back” this particular activity pattern in the various regions of the cortex, they become so strongly linked with one another that they no longer need the hippocampus to act as their link, and the memory of the music that was playing that night, for example, can act as an index entry, and may be enough to bring back the entire scene of the dinner party.
> [Episodic and semantic memory](http://www.human-memory.net/types_episodic.html)

However, auditory triggers are possibly not the strongest available. According to an idea called "Proustian phenomenon" the strongest would be smell.
Example study to that matter:
[Proust revisited: Odours as triggers of aversive memories](http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699931.2011.555475)

---

## Reference:

Toffalo, M.B.J., Smeets, M.A.M., van den Hout, M.A. (2012). Proust revisited: Odours as triggers of aversive memories. *Cognition & Emotion, 26*(1):83-92.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2013-02-11. Score: 4

[Janata's (2009) study](http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/11/2579.full) might be of interest to you. Specifically the paper proposes that the Media Pre-Frontal Cortex (MPFC) "...associates music and memories when we experience emotionally
salient episodic memories that are triggered by familiar songs from
our personal past."

**References**:

Janata, P. (2009). The neural architecture of music-evoked autobiographical memories. Cerebral Cortex, 19(11), 2579-2594. <http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/11/2579.full>


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