Just to let you know the latest issue of the Memory Key newsletter is online

There's been much debate on whether TV is bad for kids or not. Recently, there seems to be more discussion from the not-bad side. Here's another: an article that reports on a study taking a new approach: using data from 1965 test scores for almost 300,000 kids to compare later performance according to whether the city they lived in got TV earlier or later. Their conclusion: no difference.

It's probably rather more to the point to worry about whether the child is being raised in a loving home or not. The Guardian reports on the Bucharest Early Intervention Project -- the first randomised clinical trial set up to investigate the effects of social deprivation on the emotional, psychological and physical health of children. It is not, of course, the first study to demonstrate that a child's home life can have significant effects on their development, including intellectual development.

Relatedly, the Guardian also has an extract from Steve Biddulph's new book (to be released 6 March): Raising Babies: Should Under-3s Go to Nursery?

ScienCentral have an interesting article about a new technique for teaching people to control their pain. Several people with chronic pain who were able to watch their own brain activity while in a MRI gained a certain control over their perception of pain. Not all were able to learn this, and the technique is currently far too expensive and involved for general use, but it does highlight the fact that pain is a product of our brain, and offer promise for those who suffer from chronic pain.

And on a completely different note, a study has found that professional dancers tend to have particular variants of two genes that are involved in the transmission of information between nerve cells: one transports serotonin, a brain transmitter involved in mood regulation, and the other is a receptor of the hormone vasopressin, implicated in social communication and human bonding.