A new imaging study may help explain why athletes who've suffered tough losses often have a hard time getting back on top of their game -- the findings may also have relevance to those of us who live on a less exalted plane. Apparently, when swimmers watched a video clip of themselves swimming their failed Olympic qualification race, there was heightened activity in the parahippocampus and other emotion-related areas that have been implicated in depression, while the premotor cortex--a region that plans actions such as the arm and body movements needed to swim--seemed to be inhibited. Encouragingly however, a 20-minute therapy session did reduce the emotion-related activity and increase the premotor activity.

Although the study was concerned only with sports psychology, it does make you wonder if something similar goes on in any case of failure -- suggesting that "talking yourself up" really is a good idea.

And a large longitudinal study provides evidence that birth order doesn't in fact affect intelligence -- but size of family does.