question: Why is it that we can remember the words to a song as we go
comment: ITT: people try and explain neuroscience simply. Best way to explain would be that memory is contextual, and music specifically is remembered as an ordered list of words and phrases and not a complete transcript because that's how you learned it. You didn't read it as a transcript on a screen, you learned it by repetitively listening to the hook, pr the whole song. It's why pop music gets stuck in your head so readily, because you hear a simple repetitive hook through the song that you can get as an earworm, where you have just the same stupid line repeating.
passages: Section::::Lyrical vs. instrumental memory.
   Section::::Semantic vs. episodic.
   Section::::Testing.:In infants.
   Section::::Interference.:Introversion and extroversion.
   Section::::Models.:Baddeley and Hitch's model of working memory.
   "It has to do with a guy standing in line and waiting to see an old Gregory Peck movie (called "The Gunfighter") that he can't quite remember, only pieces of it," says Shepard. "Then this whole memory thing happens, unfolding before his very eyes. He starts speaking internally to a woman...reliving the whole journey they'd gone on...We spent two days writing the lyrics, Bob had previously composed the melody line, which was already down on tape."
   Many aspects of language and musical melodies are processed by the same brain areas. In 2006, Brown, Martinez and Parsons found that listening to a melody or a sentence resulted in activation of many of the same areas including the primary motor cortex, the supplementary motor area, the Brocas area, anterior insula, the primary audio cortex, the thalamus, the basal ganglia and the cerebellum.
   Other research provides support for memory of text being improved by musical training. Words presented by song were remembered significantly better than when presented by speech. Earlier research has supported for this finding, that advertising jingles that pair words with music are remembered better than words alone or spoken words with music in the background. Memory was also enhanced for pairing brands with their proper slogans if the advertising incorporated lyrics and music rather than spoken words and music in the background.
   Section::::Interference.:Hemispheric interference.
   In addition to the specific regions mentioned above many "information switch points" are active in language and music processing. These regions are believed to act as transmission routes that conduct information. These neural impulses allow the above regions to communicate and process information correctly. These structures include the thalamus and the basal ganglia.
  
  Some of the above-mentioned areas have been shown to be active in both music and language processing through PET and fMRI studies. These areas include the primary motor cortex, the Brocas area, the cerebellum, and the primary auditory cortices.
  
  Section::::Imaging the brain in action.
   Section::::Development.
   These studies are important for psychologists who want to understand how human memory and musical cognition works. For most modes of memory, people do not spontaneously remember facts or ideas throughout their day unless it is pressing to their current situation, however auditory imagery can spontaneously and constantly occur to people so evidence tells that this mode of memory differs from others. For instance, the auditory images that are remembered are usually 10–20 seconds long, however remembering facts or scenes do not necessarily hold time stamps like auditory images do. This insight would hold relevance on understanding the relationship of music and memory.
   Oral expression brings words together in pithy phrases that are the product of generations of evolution: the 'sturdy oak tree', the 'beautiful princess' or 'clever Odysseus'. This does not apply specifically to poetry or song; rather the words are brought together out of habit during general communication. 'Analyzing' or breaking apart such expressions is risky: they represent the work of generations and "there is nowhere outside the mind to store them."
   Section::::Medial temporal lobe activity during working memory for novel stimuli.
   Musicians have been shown to have significantly more developed left planum temporales, and have also shown to have a greater word memory. Chan's study controlled for age, grade point average and years of education and found that when given a 16 word memory test, the musicians averaged one to two more words above their non musical counterparts.
  
  Section::::Musician vs. non-musician processing.:Similarities.
   On the one hand, many researchers and clinicians believe that semantic memory is stored by the same brain systems involved in episodic memory. These include the medial temporal lobes (MTL) and hippocampal formation. In this system, the hippocampal formation "encodes" memories, or makes it possible for memories to form at all, and the cortex stores memories after the initial encoding process is completed.
   BULLET::::- played highly expressive music
  
  BULLET::::- come from a family with no particular abilities in music
  
  BULLET::::- never had lessons, he had just listened to others' pieces used improvisation
  
  BULLET::::- an IQ of 132 (two standard deviations above the average)
  
  BULLET::::- an extraordinary memory in all domains
  
  Section::::Amusia.
   Anecdotal evidence, from an amnesic patient named CH who suffered from declarative memory deficits, was obtained supporting a preserved memory capacity for song titles. CH's unique knowledge of accordion music allowed for experimenters to test verbal and musical associations. When presented with song titles CH was able to successfully play the correct song 100% of the time, and when presented with the melody she chose the appropriate title from several distractors with a 90% success rate.
  
  Section::::Interference.
   Section::::Atypical cases.:Savantism.
   BULLET::::- 8. Word-length effects: Short words are recalled more accurately than longer words.
  
  Section::::Neuroanatomy.
  
  The anterior cingulate cortex, globus pallidus, thalamus, and cerebellum show higher activation during recall than during recognition which suggests that these components of the cerebello-frontal pathway play a role in recall processes that they do not in recognition. Although recall and recognition are considered separate processes, they are both most likely constitute components of distributed networks of brain regions. 
   Neuroscientific evidence suggests that memory for music is, at least in part, special and distinct from other forms of memory. The neural processes of music memory retrieval share much with the neural processes of verbal memory retrieval, as indicated by functional magnetic resonance imaging studies comparing the brain areas activated during each task. Both musical and verbal memory retrieval activate the left inferior frontal cortex, which is thought to be involved in executive function, especially executive function of verbal retrieval, and the posterior middle temporal cortex, which is thought to be involved in semantic retrieval. However, musical semantic retrieval also bilaterally activates the superior temporal gyri containing the primary auditory cortex.
   The song is a testament to the way that music can instantly trigger a memory that was seemingly forgotten. The woman in the song is waiting for change at a counter when she hears a familiar song. Out of nowhere, she is suddenly reminded of a time when she and a former lover sang along to the song on the radio as they drove through the Rocky Mountains. She recalls that she tried many ways to rid herself of the memories of that failed romance, only to have them come rushing back in an instant when she hears a song attached to a moment in their time together:
   Section::::Recording and composition.
   BULLET::::- Ann Codee as Mme. Gilly
  
  BULLET::::- Leopold Sachse as Himself
  
  BULLET::::- Stephen Bekassy as Comte Claude des Vignaux
  
  Section::::Production.
  
  Section::::Production.:Development.
  
  In 1947 it was reported that Marjorie Lawrence was writing her memoirs, titled "Interrupted Melody", and that she wanted Greer Garson to play her.
  
  The book was published in 1950. The "Chicago Tribune" called it "engrossing".
   BULLET::::- Practice of music
  