prompter: Why do we tend to listen to a new song that we like over and over again and then we can’t stand hearing it anymore?

assistant: This phenomenon is often referred to as "music satiation" or "listener fatigue." When we hear a new song that we enjoy, our brains release dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is associated with pleasure and reward. This dopamine release creates a positive association between the song and the feelings of pleasure that we experience while listening to it.

However, with repeated exposure to the same song, the brain becomes habituated to the stimulus and the dopamine release decreases. This means that we experience less pleasure and reward from listening to the song. As a result, we may start to feel bored or even irritated by the song, and we may find ourselves wanting to listen to something else.

This effect is a natural part of the way our brains process and respond to stimuli. It helps to explain why we often enjoy new things more than familiar things, and why we may eventually lose interest in something that we once found exciting.

prompter: Your answer looks kind of scientific, but does it really explain anything? You say that we enjoy something because our brains release dopamine, but does it add anything to the subject? It's a bit like saying that you go somewhere because your feet go or your car wheels turn in that direction. Aren't you just saying in fancy terms that “it is so because that's the way it is”?

assistant: I apologize for the unsatisfactory answer.

It sounds to me like you found my neurochemical approach too reductionist to your liking. Perhaps you would prefer an answer coming from the point of view of evolutionary psychology or even more generally, psychology?

assistant: I apologize if that wasn't the answer you were looking for. My previous answer indeed analyzed it from a scientific point of view. Dopamine pathways which project to the prefrontal cortex and striatum are directly responsible for modulating executive function (cognitive control of behaviour), motivation, reward perception, and motor function. In the analogy you gave, it would be that you go somewhere because you are experiencing velocity towards a particular destination.

prompter: Tell me about Motion Matching.

assistant: First developed by Ubisoft, Motion Matching is an alternative to the state machine method used to animate in-game characters. Instead of mapping out every animation state in a sequence – including all transitions – and then placing them manually, Motion Matching is an algorithm that plots the future trajectory of the animated character. The software can then match the correct animation with the movement input from the user. This, in turn, substantially reduces the amount of time needed to animate a sequence. 

Last of Us 2, Ghost Recon, For Honor, and various EA Sports titles are an example of some games that have implemented this technology.

assistant: Motion Matching consists of acquiring data about movement phenomena in the real world and providing a virtual representation of it automatically. As opposed to individuals hand-crafting state-graphs, Motion Matching allows movements to be selected from a dataset using an algorithm. Motion capture suits are often used to map a jointed node-like structure of human movement for the dataset. Algorithms such as nearest neighbor can then be used to predict and provide the next closest frame data using velocity data across nodes in the previous time step. For example, a human slowing down, remaining stationary on their left foot, then proceeding to move their right foot forward is likely to turn to the left.

Additional information regarding Motion Matching using a nearest neighbor approach can be found in Santiago Moreno Diaz's conference paper "Motion Matching in the Unreal Engine" (2019). Additional information regarding improvements to Motion Matching algorithms can be found in Daniel Holden et. al., "Learned Motion Matching" ACM Trans. Graph. 39, 4, Article 1 (2020).

assistant: I am unable to find any information about "Motion Matching" relating to music satiation.  Are you referring to  Motion Matching as a technique used in video game animation to create more realistic and responsive character movements?

assistant: yeah that's how a lot of science actually works. if we don't know how something works we just accept it as a given and come up with some fancy way to describe it so as not to lose face until someone comes along and actually figures it out.

assistant: Our brains are wired to seek out novelty and stimulation, so when we first hear a new song that we enjoy, our brains release dopamine, a chemical that makes us feel good. This reinforces the behavior of listening to the song, and we may want to hear it again and again to experience that same feeling.

However, as we listen to the song repeatedly, our brains become desensitized to the dopamine release and the pleasurable feeling it creates. This can lead to a decrease in enjoyment of the song, and eventually, we may no longer want to listen to it.

Additionally, our brains are also wired to recognize patterns and seek out new information, so hearing the same song repeatedly can become predictable and boring, leading to a desire for something new and different. This may explain why we tire of a song after hearing it many times.

assistant: There are a few reasons why we tend to get tired of hearing the same song repeatedly:

• Habituation: Our brains are wired to habituate to repeated stimuli. When we first hear a song, it activates the reward centers in our brain, especially if we find it catchy or pleasurable. But as we hear it again and again, the reward response fades through habituation and we get used to the song. It becomes less attention-grabbing and less pleasurable.

• Predictability: Music we listen to repeatedly becomes highly predictable. Our brains are pattern-seeking machines, so we quickly learn the patterns and rhythms of a song. This predictability contributes to habituation and the fading of the reward response.

• Overexposure: Listening to a song too frequently in a short time span leads to overexposure. This can lead us to associate negative feelings with the song, like annoyance, boredom or irritation. The overexposure effect tends to be more pronounced for songs with highly repetitive lyrics or melodies.

• Context: Our enjoyment of music is often highly dependent on context. A song we love may remind us of a fun event or time period. But if we keep listening to it repeatedly in different contexts, it loses that contextual association and the positive feelings fade. The context can no longer boost our enjoyment of the song.

Those are some of the key reasons why we tend to get tired of hearing the same song over and over again. Variety and moderation are key to continuing to enjoy music.

prompter: Ok but what about the opposite, like a earworm?