Another raft of interesting radio programs from BBC Radio 4. One about the whole theory of mind thing (something I'm always fascinated by) - how your brain tries to guess what others' brains are thinking. Another on musical memory - how musicians learn and remember music. Another on that very trendy concept - wellbeing (happiness used to be a bit un-scientific for psychologists to study, but now I am pleased to say it's getting a lot more credibility). And finally, a programme on how hard it is to make decisions when you have so many choices.

There's also a fascinating article in a recent New Scientist about a new view of depression - an imaging study has revealed, to everyone's astonishment, that the hippocampi of those with clinical depression were significantly smaller than the hippocampi of closely matched controls without depression. Moreover, the longer the person had been depressed, the smaller the hippocampus. What does it mean? Well, we'll need more studies to work that one out, but the possible implications are fascinating. Recent research demonstrating that new brain cells can be created in the hippocampus suggests that maybe it's not so much, or not only, that brain cells are dying in the hippocampus, but that they are failing to be born. These two studies suggest a whole new approach to the treatment of depression. And of course, it provides a rationale for why cognitive performance often declines in those with severe depression. (news release)