All in the Mind

Doomsday Prophets and the Nature of BeliefHow do you cope with believing you are very right, but finding out you that were very wrong ? Neuroscientist Dr Kris de Meyer from King's College, London, spent six weeks interviewing followers of evangelical Christian broadcaster, Harold Camping, as they waited for May 21st, 2011, the date the earth was supposed to end. The resulting film explores the psychology of belief and tracks the mental gymnastics that individuals resort to when their fundamental beliefs are so publicly shattered.News Consumption and Mental WellbeingIs bad news bad for your mental health ? Rolf Dobelli, author of The Art of Thinking, believes so, and he's given up on the habit. Rolf and Dr Pam Ramsden, from the University of Bolton, discuss with Claudia Hammond what we know about news consumption and mental wellbeing.Psychology Research With Dr Christian JarrettWhy women give better speeches if there's a picture of Hilary Clinton, or even Angela Merkel, behind them. Dr Christian Jarrett, Editor of the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, reviews the latest intriguing and important studies from psychology and neuroscience, including evidence that fighters should resist the urge to smile in their pre-match press conferences...apparently those who grin, do not win !Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Fiona Hill.

New research shows that reading a baby's mind aids its development. Claudia Hammond reports on a new technique which helps mothers connect with their infants. Known as mind mindedness this method cuts across social groups and is being used successfully to help women with serious mental illness bond with their babies.And should people with mental illness be told the long term effects of their drugs? One listener thinks this is a message that should be handled with care. Plus, how a poem written twenty years ago by a twelve year old dyslexic boy has inspired a new art science collaboration.

"Bob", the Armed Forces, the Police and PTSDA former member of the armed forces and a policeman, "Bob", suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD following the shocking death of a young woman that he was spending the evening with. He tells Claudia Hammond that he's only recently received the help he needed to get his life back on track and admits that he believes many people in the emergency services have, like him, untreated PTSD. The statistics confirm "Bob's" suspicions, which is why research at Kings College, London, and Oxford University is of such interest. Dr Jennifer Wild and her doctoral student, Rachel White, have discovered that by training people to concentrate on HOW the event is unfolding rather than WHY, significantly fewer PTSD-type symptoms are reported. Researchers exposed volunteers to traumatic films with visuals of accidents and deaths, but whereas those in the WHY group were encouraged to focus on the abstract, on why such terrible things happen and what it would mean for the people involved and their families, the HOW group was prompted to focus on the specific and objective details of the event without straying into its greater meaning.The results showed that the WHY group suffered from more intrusive memories, flashbacks and hyper-arousal than the HOW group, suggesting that if emergency workers could be trained to change their thinking, then psychological trauma could be reduced. Past In MindA chance meeting on a train between archaeologist Ian Bapty and Herefordshire MIND worker, Jenny McMillan, led to an unusual collaboration: an archaeological dig to excavate a lost village. The Past In Mind project brought together archaeologists, historians and people recovering from mental health problems on the Lower Brockhampton Estate in Herefordshire to search for the lost medieval settlement of Studmarsh. Volunteers made an audio diary for All in the Mind from the dig.OrganophosphatesGovernment advisers on the Committee on Toxicity have been sent a new review on organophosphates which suggests that low level exposure causes damage to the brain and nervous system. Dr Sarah Mackenzie Ross, a neuropsychologist from University College London is one of the authors of the meta-analysis - a systematic review of the best available evidence - and she tells Claudia Hammond that the evidence suggests that people who have been exposed to low levels of organophosphates have impaired cognitive function. Organophospate pesticides are the most widely used insecticides in the world in agriculture and horticulture. They're also used in industry as lubricants, plasticizers and flame-retardants and pest-control teams use them too. But it's been known for some time, despite their importance in food production and disease prevention, that in high doses, they damage the brain and the nervous system. What's more controversial is whether there is a risk from low-level exposure to organophosphates, so this latest publication will be of interest to the Committee on Toxicity which is currently reviewing this subject. Producer: Fiona Hill.

Mild cognitive impairment is a condition which is often a precursor to Alzheimer's Disease, but not everyone will go on to develop the condition. If researchers could discover who does develop the disease and who doesn't it would have implications for therapy. Claudia talks to researchers about some of the latest research in this area and discovers how the loss of brain cells in a region of the brain known as the hippocampus leads to the characteristic symptoms of the disease.At the scene of a disaster it is now common for counselling to be provided for the victims, but will everyone develop post traumatic stress disorder PTSD? John Marzillier, a researcher in this area with 40 years experience, says everyone responds differently and only 10% of people are likely to develop PTSD.Why do we continue to believe information even when we are told it's wrong? Claudia Hammond discovers how the brain stores facts and why we don't erase erroneous explanations.

Polygraph Testing for Sex OffendersMandatory polygraph tests for sex offenders could be introduced by the end of 2013, following a pilot trial in the Midlands was judged to be a success.The controversial test is often called a "lie detector". It measures physiological arousal such as increased heart rate, respiration and sweating and the assumption is that these responses can be used to assess whether somebody's telling the truth or not. In the pilot study, convicted sex offenders who'd served their sentence and were out on licence in the ecommunity, were judged to be more than twice as likely to admit to risky behaviour if they'd been given a polygraph test. The Ministry of Justice, subject to parliamentary time and approval, wants to roll out compulsory testing within 12 months in England and Wales.Dr Jane Wood, a forensic psychologist from the University of Kent and one of the authors of the Midlands polygraph pilot evaluation, describes the results which so impressed the Ministry of Justice and then Claudia Hammond hears from both sides of the polygraph debate: Dr Sharon LeaI, from the International Centre for Forensic Research in Psychology at the University of Portsmouth, who criticises the lack of evidence around polygraph use and Don Grubin, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Newcastle University who says the polygraph can play an important role in the management of dangerous sex offenders.BirdsongWill the song of a blackbird make us happier than the caw of a crow ? These and other questions will be answered by Eleanor Ratcliffe from the University of Surrey who's studying the benefits of birdsong on our wellbeing and our behaviour. The Psychology of DisfigurementOur looks are our "social currency" so what happens when our appearance is radically altered by disfigurement ?How people cope, psychologically, with dramatic changes to the way they look is the subject of a major new research project, and the results challenge many myths about who copes best. "Time is a great healer", "women care about their looks more than men", "the more serious the disfigurement, the harder it is to cope", are all beliefs challenged in this new study. Claudia Hammond hears one woman's story, academic researcher, Amanda Bates, about how she coped with her visible difference and she talks to Nichola Rumsey and Diana Harcourt from the Centre for Appearance Research in Bristol. Producer: Fiona Hill.

New research by Professor Mary Cummings of MIT looks at the boredom threshold of drone operators. In a simulated study with volunteers she discovered that operators distracting themselves by playing games, or checking e-mails could help improve the performance of UAV operators, air traffic controllers and nuclear power plant operators.Author Sarah Wise talks to Claudia Hammond about the wealth of evidence she has uncovered about the rise, in 19th Century Britain, of the "mad doctor". This new generation of medical men were powerful and corruptible, and there are many stories of difficult family members being locked up in lunatic asylums - or "living tombs" as they were called - in return for bribes.And it seems that far from the classic view of women being the main victim of such skulduggery, moneyed men were more likely targets as relatives and business partners sought to get hold of their cash and property. Suspicion and anger towards the asylum committal procedure crossed classes, and there were protests in the streets against "lunacy inquisitions". It is often thought that the long term effects of neglect and abuse early in life mean that children are unable to form bonds with carers such as foster parents, but a new study from Professor Stephen Scott at the Institute of Psychiatry in London dispels this myth.Producer: Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Sexuality and Faces - How does our "Gaydar" work ?Most of us think we're pretty good at guessing when somebody's gay or straight, but what signals are we using to make our decision, and how often are we right ? Psychologists at Queen Mary University of London are, for the first time, trying to isolate the individual signals and patterns in somebody's face, in order to work out exactly what motivates us to make a snap decision about sexuality. Using cutting edge computer imagery, researchers have found a way of transferring male facial expressions onto female faces and vice versa, which means they can work out exactly how our "gaydar" works. Dr Qazi Rahman, assistant professor in Cognitive Biology, and PHd student, William Jolly, are hoping that their research will challenge stereotypes and prejudice by increasing awareness of how quickly, and often inaccurately, people classify each other. The Me Generation Professor Jean Twenge from San Diego State University in California has already coined the phrase, "Generation Me", describing the growing number of people who take it for granted that the self comes first. And she's less than flattering abut the downsides of this fundamental cultural shift. She talks to Claudia Hammond about her latest research using data mined from the American Freshman Survey. This study captures students' attitudes right back to 1966, and compares how current students rate themselves and their abilities compared to the generation 45 years ago. Unsurprisingly, she finds that the younger generation is more likely to view themselves as above average, even though these attitudes aren't born out by the facts.IQ Tests and Learning DisabilitiesPsychologists are considering whether guidelines on how learning disabilities are assessed should be revised, following concerns that IQ test scores could be depriving people of a formal diagnosis, and therefore access to services. Dr Simon Whitaker, consultant clinical psychologist and senior visiting research fellow at Huddersfield University, has completed research which raises questions about the reliability and consistency of IQ scores for people with learning difficulties. Current rules mean people must score less than 70 on an IQ test as well as fulfilling other criteria but Dr Whitaker claims IQ tests aren't reliable enough and that those missing out on a diagnosis are also missing out on access to services. Dr Theresa Joyce, consultant clinical psychologist and the person leading the British Psychological Society Review on how learning disabilities are diagnosed and assessed, tells Claudia Hammond that a range of scores is used before a diagnosis is reached. Producer: Fiona Hill.

First CBT Psychosis Trial in the Absence of MedicationAntipsychotic medication has long been seen as the first line of treatment for psychosis. In fact, prescriptions are increasing in the UK and around the world. But there's criticism that the effectiveness of these drugs has been over-estimated, and the serious side effects, underestimated.Now, in the first trial of its kind in the world, treating psychosis when people aren't taking antipsychotics using a talking therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, is being measured in a randomised controlled trial.It is the first time since the 1970s that a psychological treatment, in the absence of medication, has been put to the test, and the results of this experiment have the potential to transform the treatment options for the many people who have diagnoses of schizophrenia and related disorders.The trial's being run jointly by Manchester University and Greater Manchester West Mental Health Foundation Trust, and Tony Morrison, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Manchester, is leading the research along with colleagues in the North East of England.He tells Claudia Hammond that patients should be given more choice about the treatments they're offered instead of medication being the default option.Trial participants, Natalie and Steve, describe their experience of psychosis and the treatments that have helped them and the Editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry, Peter Tyrer, puts the trial into context.US Elections and Mental HealthSixteen per cent of the American population don't have health care insurance and people with mental health problems are over-represented in this group. Daniel Carlat is Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts School of Medicine and he describes to Claudia how insurance companies are reluctant to fund mental health care.Producer: Fiona Hill.

In the first of a new series, presenter Claudia Hammond reports on the latest developments in neuroscience, mental health and psychology. Anna Freud was the daughter of Sigmund Freud who pioneered child psychotherapy. She set up the Hampstead War nurseries during the Second World War, which became the Anna Freud Centre after her death in 1982. The Centre is now celebrating its 60th anniversary and Claudia investigates how it has changed and asks what the founder would think of its many new projects, including neuroscience and teenage brains. Claudia talks to the new Minister with responsibility for mental health, Norman Lamb. And Rebecca Shaumberg explains why she thinks guilt is a positive characteristic in a leader.

Richard MabeyThe man described as "Britain's greatest living nature writer", Richard Mabey, talks to Claudia Hammond about "the lost years" of his depressive illness. The author of Food for Free, Flora Britannica and Nature Cure admits that a symptom of his clinical depression was that he lost his connection with the natural world.Allotment "Young at Heart"The Young at Heart Project in Barking and Dagenham works to improve the mental and physical health of socially isolated men by bringing them together for regular growing sessions down at the allotment.EcotherapyMental health professionals join Andy McGeeney in ancient woodland, Thorndon Park, in Essex, to learn about ecotherapy.Lisa on Horticultural TherapyAfter many years of illness, Lisa, a former mental health nurse, tells Claudia about the part making a garden played in her recovery."Green Therapy": the evidenceDr Rachel Bragg from the "Green Care Research Team" at the University of Essex describes the evidence behind nature-based therapies and argues they should be part of a "toolkit" of care for patients.Producer: Fiona Hill.

The well respected mental health campaigner, Janey Antoniou, died in hospital in 2010 while detained under the Mental Health Act. Her husband, Dr Michael Antoniou, talks to Claudia Hammond about the circumstances of his wife's death and why he believes it's wrong that hospitals, when a patient dies, can investigate themselves.Also in the programme Claudia talks to psychologist, Sonja Lyubomirsky, about new research which shows that parents are happier than non-parents but surprisingly, the effect is greatest for men.Claudia visits Europe's largest club drug clinic, part of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, a year after it opened to find out about a growing use of so- called legal highs and the problems associated with legal and illegal club drug use. Producer: Pam Rutherford.

StalkingIn an exclusive interview for All in the Mind, a woman who was harassed and threatened over four years by a female member of staff, calls for employers to take stalking in the workplace seriously. This former high-flying executive, who ran an organisation with thousands of staff with a multi million pound budget, tells Claudia Hammond about the death threats, abusive mails and harrassment that amounted to "four years of hell".How Infants Know MindsParents are always amazed by how much their babies seem to understand, but the traditional view of psychologists, studying child development, has been in conflict with this. Psychologists' "Theory of Mind", suggests that until a child is 2 or 3, it's impossible for them to understand certain things, because they don't have an idea of their own mind, and by extension, can't possibly have an idea of somebody else's.But Vasu Reddy, Professor of Developmental and Cultural Psychology at the University of Portsmouth, has, for twenty years, been challenging these assumptions, with research demonstrating that babies can tease, joke and even play with our expectations, long before they can speak. Sports Participation after Major Sporting EventsThis week the government launched their Games4Life campaign with the aim of inspiring the nation to get active during this year's summer of sport. But does watching big sporting events like the Olympics encourage people take part in more sport or even just to take a bit more exercise?Claudia talks to Ken Fox, Emeritus Professor of Exercise and Health Science at Bristol University, about the psychology behind what motivates us to exercise and whether one of the common assumptions about the legacy of the 2012 games of a sportier, healthier nation stands up to the evidence. Producer: Fiona Hill.

Claudia Hammond talks to Jacopo Annese, director of the San Diego brain observatory about his mission to create what he calls 'a Hubble space telescope for the brain'. He is recruiting people who will be willing to donate their brains to his laboratory. By interviewing them regularly to record their detailed life histories and interests and by doing psychological tests he aims to provide a brain archive for neuroscientists in the future. But what sort of links can be established between brain anatomy and personality and what sort of people are willing to donate their brains to his lab? Producer: Pam Rutherford.

At the 2000 Sydney Paralympics ten members of the Spanish basketball team were stripped of their gold for pretending to have a learning disability. For the first time since that scandal athletes with learning disabilities can compete again in this year's games. British psychologist, Professor Jan Burns is the Head of Eligibility for the International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability. She tells Claudia which sports and which athletes will be eligible. In 2007 the Harvard political scientist, Robert Putnam published a paper stating that ethnic diversity in a community is associated with more mistrust. His paper was influential with governments, both in the UK and the US. Claudia is joined by one of Britain's leading social psychologists, Professor Miles Hewstone from Oxford University, about his new research which finds Putnam's bleak conclusions about society are wrong. Clinical microbiologist, Graham Rook from University College London is hopeful that one day there might be a vaccination against depression. He's basing his ideas on two things: the finding that some people with depression are found to have higher levels of inflammation in the body and the idea that inflammation could be controlled by our exposure to contact with certain worms and bacteria - the so-called hygiene hypothesis. Professor Rook tells Claudia why he thinks with more research there could one day be a vaccine. The link between depression and inflammation in a proportion of people with depression is established, but is a vaccine for all really possible and would it be a useful avenue to explore for preventing the condition? Nick Craddock is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Cardiff and explains why he is critical of the idea. Producer: Pam Rutherford.

Airport Scanners to help with Distorted Body ImagePeople with eating disorders often have a distorted view of their own bodies. Researchers at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen are now using 3-D body scanners to test whether giving this accurate feedback of body shape could help in the treatment of life-threatening illnesses like anorexia and bulimia.Chit-Lit, Scandi-Lit...now Neuro-Lit !Why neuroscience is taking a leading role in the modern novel. Claudia Hammond talks to science writer, Jonah Lehrer, and to academic psychologist and writer, Charles Fernyhough, about the emergence of brain science in literature and considers whether new understanding of the brain can enrich fiction in the same way that Darwinism or Psychoanalysis did. Teenagers' Brains and Social RejectionIt's long been known that adolescents are particularly vulnerable to being left out. They get hurt and feel the rejection very keenly. Research by Dr Catherine Sebastian at the Developmental Risk and Resilience Unit at University College London suggests this response could be explained by the developing teenage brain. Producer: Fiona Hill.

Money and Motivation: how do high pay and bonuses affect performance ?Barclays chief, Bob Diamond, was the first high profile company head to be caught up in the "shareholder spring", when investors criticised his multi-million pound pay and bonus package. The Aviva boss has resigned after his pay and bonus was criticised, similarly Sly Bailey of Trinity Mirror has also stood down. The opposition is based on the argument that there should be no payment for failure, but what is the evidence that payment for success is a primary motivation for top business leaders ? Dr Stian Reimers, a psychologist at the City University in London, discusses money and motivation and uncovers a complex picture of how bonuses and incentives affect performance.Taking mental health care into the community: "Street Therapy"Clinical Psychologist, Charlie Alcock, took months to get young gang members on a London estate to trust her. But after being spat at and having stones thrown at her head, she finally succeeded in making contact with this hardest of all hard-to-reach groups. Determined to make mental health services available to these young people - most of whom were involved in extreme anti-social behaviour - she and her team developed "street therapy", a new model of treatment moulded around the often chaotic lives of their clients. Claudia Hammond sees for herself "street therapy" in action, and talks to the former gang members who are now key members of MAC-UK, the charity delivering this new kind of "care in the community".Reforming the Law on InsanityIn 1843 a man called M'Naghten attempted to murder the British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel. He got the wrong man, killing his secretary by mistake. Our current laws on insanity are rooted in that case, from nearly 200 years ago. Not surprisingly, pressure to reform "Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity" is growing and the Law Commission is due to consider updating and modernising the rules. Professor Ronnie Mackay from De Montfort University in Leicester discusses his research on how the plea of insanity has been used, in practice. While Dr Tony Maden, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry and Imperial College, London and Dr Lisa Claydon, Associate Professor in Criminal Justice at the University of the West of England debate why and how the law should be changed.Producer: Fiona Hill.

Claudia Hammond visits HMP Grendon, the only prison in Europe which operates wholly as a therapeutic community. More than nine out of ten prisoners at Grendon are serving indeterminate sentences for murder or serious violent offences. Inmates have to apply for a place and once approved undergo intensive group therapy three times a week for well over a year. Claudia talks to inmates, therapists and prison staff to find out how the prison operates and how its unique environment aims to reduce reoffending rates.

In April next year changes to the way the NHS in England will make GP groups responsible for 65 billion pounds of health budgets. These groups will decide what services patients need for all clinical services including mental health. But are all GPs confident of their expertise in mental health to do this? And what safeguards are in place to ensure enough good quality mental health is delivered to everyone across the country? Claudia is joined by Paul Burstow, the government minister for Care Services, Claire Murdoch, chief executive of Central and North west London NHS Foundation Trust and Sophie Corlett, Director of external relations at the mental health charity, Mind to discuss the reforms and their impact on mental health. As many as one in five people go online to look for love but what is the psychological of online dating? Is there a right way to write a profile to maximise your chances of romance and do sites that offer to match you with suitable partners actually work? Claudia talks to Eli Finkel, associate professor of psychology at Northwestern university who has recently published one of the largest reviews of what relationship science reveals about the means of finding love online.

The BBC Stress test was launched in June with BBC Lab UK, with the aim of answering one of the big questions in mental health - what is the cause of mental illness ? More than 32,000 Radio 4 listeners took part, making this one of the largest studies of its kind in the world. The early results are in and Peter Kinderman, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Liverpool, tells Claudia Hammond what the findings reveal about the origins of mental health problems and the most effective coping strategies.Mental Health - Time for a Laugh? We all like a good laugh and there's plenty of evidence that it makes us feel better. But if somebody asked you to a night of comedy and sketches around mental health - if you were honest would your heart sink? Can mental illness ever be funny? Can we poke fun at the absurdities of serious conditions such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder or even - suicide? Or does a serious message automatically consign it to the unfunny bin? Claudia goes to see Cracking Up, a show that tackles the stigma around mental illness head on. She talks to the show's compere and writer, John Ryan, and the creator, health psychologist, Maya Twardzicki, about whether mental health can ever be funny.Disclosing your mental health history when you apply for a job: There's a lot of confusion about whether you should, or shouldn't reveal to a potential employer your history of mental illness. Employers too, aren't clear about what questions they can ask and when. Claudia asks the experts what the legal situation actually is. Ben Willmott, head of Public Policy for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Emma Mamo who oversees employment work for the mental health charity, MIND, answer listeners' questions on the subject.Producer: Fiona Hill.

London Taxi drivers have to learn 25 000 streets and 20 000 landmarks to qualify and get the Knowledge. New research by Professor Eleanor Maguire from University College London has followed trainee taxi drivers over the years they learn the knowledge and found an area of their brains important for memory and navigation grows in response to learning. Does this mean all our brains have this plastic capacity? Should you disclose if you have any mental health problems to your employer? Listeners give their opinion and Seaneen Molloy, author of the Secret Life of a Manic depressive talks about her experiences of going back to work. The Royal Society publishes its latest Brain Waves report on Neuroscience and the Law. Claudia explores what the latest developments in neuroscience could mean for the legal process and asks what kind of new brain based information might be submissible as evidence in court? What are the ethical and legal issues raised by the possibility of predicting criminal behaviour? Could sentencing and probation decisions be influenced by a better knowledge of the brain basis for certain kinds of behaviours? Professor of psychology, Nick Mackintosh and Joanna Glynn, QC discuss what this means for our understanding of decision-making, notions of free will and responsibility and the law. Producer: Pam Rutherford.

Zoe from South Wales spent twelve years with undiagnosed Bipolar Disorder. The personal cost to this mother of three was devastating, as, over the years, she was told she had Post Natal Depression and treated with anti-depressants. It's long been recognised that Bipolar Disorder could be both misdiagnosed and under-diagnosed and Dr Nick Stafford describes a new pilot project in Leicester to screen for the condition. Complaints Choirs have sprung up all around the world with members putting their moans and whinges to song. But Guy Winch, a clinical psychologist from New York and author of The Squeaky Wheel, believes that to complain successfully, we need to harness the latest psychological research on the subject. A government study showed just four in ten employers would hire somebody with a mental health problem. And that's despite the fact that the vast majority of unemployed people who experience mental illness want to work. Evidence shows too that working is an important part of recovery. A new scheme, called Individual Placement and Support, is unique in that employment advice and support is embedded within the Community Mental Health Team. Nicola Oliver, IPS Coordinator at the Centre for Mental Health says this approach is now used by almost half of NHS mental health trusts and Rachel describes how this support helped to find her dream job in fashion. Presented by Claudia Hammond.Producer: Fiona Hill.

In May this year All in the Mind featured an intriguing Dutch study which reported that when there's a lot of rubbish in the street we're more likely to stereotype other people. Earlier this year it was found that the co author, Diederik Stapel had made up the data. As well as fooling us, he fooled the journal Science. Now the three Dutch universities involved have published their interim report on the extent of his fraud. Claudia talks to Martin Keulemanns, Science Editor at the Dutch broadsheet, the Volkskrant to ask why Stapel was able to get away with it for so long and what questions does his case raise about the way psychological research is conducted. Also in the programme, Claudia reports on an innovative mentoring project in Manchester where people with social phobia, agoraphobia or other anxiety disorders are matched up with volunteer mentors who've been through, and are mostly recovered from their own experiences of anxiety. Claudia meets the mentors and mentees who meet once a week for six months and finds out how successful the scheme has been so far. That catchy tune in your head - or earworm - might help to uncover some of the workings of memory. Dr Vicky Williamson who lectures on Music, Mind & Brain at Goldsmiths University of London is studying hundreds of earworms to try to come up with strategies for banishing them. She also explains why her research could help get rid of more intrusive and troubling memories like those resulting from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Riots started in Tottenham in London on August 6th this year and spread to 35 different locations across the Capital and towns and cities across England, including Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool and Nottingham. Parliament was recalled and there was a rapidly growing consensus among politicians and the media, that the riots were the result of pure criminality. The riots were criminal, the rioters were criminals and their behaviour was motivated by criminality. A popular explanation for the cause came down to "mob mentality", that in the heat of the moment, individuals lose their identity and act emotionally and irrationally, with little sense of self. But three months after the riots, two psychologists of international reputation, Steve Reicher and Clifford Stott, both experts in crowd behaviour and crowd psychology, are challenging that interpretation in a new e-book, "Mad Mobs and Englishmen". They say that not only is the criminality consensus wrong, but it's also dangerous. Claudia speaks to Professor Reicher, about what their research uncovered. "Anchoring" and the Minimum Payments on Credit Cards: The British have the second highest use of credit cards in the world; only Americans make greater use of their flexible friends. And in the UK, our cards are loaded with debt. The minimum payment printed, by law, on the bottom of the monthly bill, is supposed to stop us getting into further debt by ensuring that we always pay off at least some of the balance every month. But new research by Professor Neil Stewart from the University of Warwick has discovered that the minimum payment could be having the opposite effect. Because of the impact of a well-established psychological effect called "anchoring", it appears that simply reading the suggested minimum payment makes us pay off less of the debt that we would otherwise have done. Counterintuitive ? Yes. Bullying and Borderline Personality Disorder: The links between childhood bullying and mental health problems in later life are well established, and new research suggests that the impact could also include increased rates of Borderline Personality Disorder. BPD is quite rare and little is known about its causes, but it's a condition which can feature emotional instability, impulsivity, paranoia and difficulties in relationships. In a huge study over time, 6000 children in all, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), researchers discovered that children who experienced long term or very severe bullying by their peers are seven times more likely to show symptoms of BPD at the age of 11. Producer: Fiona Hill.

Daniel KahnemanWidely regarded as the world's most influential living psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, reflects on his lifetime's research on why we make the "wrong" decisions. He won the Nobel Prize for Economics for his pioneering work with Amos Tversky on the irrational ways we make decisions about risk. He directly challenged traditional economic orthodoxy that we are rational, logical and selfish in the choices we make, laying the foundations for behavioural economics. And his research quantified how real people, rather than textbook examples, consistently make less than rational choices, prey to the quirks of human perception and intuition. Claudia Hammond talks to him about "anchoring" and "priming" and why he fears for the behaviour of people motivated by money. Conjoined Twins: Could conjoined twin girls, joined at the head have two brains but share a mind? One girl is pricked for a blood test, her sister cries. Or one watches TV, the other laughs at the images her sister sees. What does the connection of these young girls' brains reveal about the difference between brain and mind? Producers: Fiona Hill & Pam Rutherford.

"Nudge" was the best-selling book that David Cameron famously ordered his shadow cabinet to read over their summer holidays. The previous Labour government had already shown some interest in the new science of behavioural economics, but as Prime Minister, Cameron put the ideas of University of Chicago behavioural economist, Richard Thaler, at the heart of his government, and set up the world's first Behavioural Insights Team, or "Nudge Unit". Based in the Cabinet Office and led by psychologist, David Halpern, this small team is chewing over ways to persuade us to make the "right" decisions about the way we live using a nudge, rather than a regulatory shove - but will it work ?Claudia Hammond talks to the Behavioural Insights Team about where they believe they can really make a difference and finds out whether the psychological research to date, justifies the belief that major policy challenges like the economy and public health, can be tackled using behavioural science. And Claudia hears from the critics, sceptical that evidence of individual behaviour change can be extrapolated to whole populations when it comes to the most serious problems in our society. Producer: Fiona Hill.

How can a good night's sleep improve your memory? Why does the answer to a crossword clue suddenly appear first thing in the morning after a night's rest? In this week's programme Claudia Hammond talks to psychologist, Kimberly Fenn about what happens in the brain when we sleep and why it can significantly improve our memory. Hysteria or conversion disorder is surprisingly, not confined to medical history. Nearly 1 in 5 patients seen by neurologists will have symptoms like paralysis, fits or loss of vision which can't be explained neurologically. Claudia talks to neurologist, Mark Edwards and psychiatrist, Richard Kanaan about the history of conversion disorder, how common it is today, the best way to treat it and its complex causes. Also in the programme, Claudia meets the carers getting involved in mental health research and why their input is making a a difference to research projects exploring mental health across the country.

After the fall of Nicolai Ceausescu in Romania, news of how babies and children were treated in Romanian orphanages horrified the world. Images of infants, silent and malnourished, rocking in their cots, hosed down with cold water, prompted an outburst of collective outrage and thousands of would-be parents rushed to adopt. But little was known then, in 1990, about the long-term effects of such extreme, early deprivation: how would the babies and toddlers who had been denied basic human contact and care, adapt and recover when they were transfered to their new, loving and caring families?Twenty one years on, and scientists who have been tracking the progress of these children in the English and Romanian Adoptees study, have made some astonishing discoveries.Claudia Hammond talks to Professor Sir Michael Rutter and his team about this "unique and natural experiment", which enabled scientists to pinpoint, exactly, when severe deprivation ended and good parenting began. She discovers just how quickly these babies and toddlers caught up with their English peers and hears encouraging evidence about the capacity of human beings to recover from the most appalling early treatment.But she finds out too, that for some of these children, the sobering reality is that their impairments appear to be long-lasting. Cindy and Anthony Calvert from Northallerton in North Yorkshire describe bringing 18-month old Adi back from an orphanage in the north of Romania. She was dehydrated, with tiny, wrinkled, dry hands and a terror of flies. She flourished in her new home, but was so fearful of being thirsty, she would drink water whenever she could. And her early experience of being held under freezing cold water to wash her, she admits, has left her with a life-long fear of swimming. And Will Moult, now 21 years old, who's training to be a primary school teacher, tells Claudia about his early life in one of Romania's most notorious institutions, Orphanage Number One, in Bucharest. He knows he had very little human contact as a baby, until he was adopted and brought to London when he was 18 months old. Uncomforted and alone, he'd rubbed a bald patch on the back of his head from holding onto the bars of his cot. But now Will wants to write a book about his experiences in order to help other, adopted children. Both Adi and Will are both testament to the remarkable resilience shown by so many of the babies and toddlers who were adopted from these Romanian institutions. And it's finding out why children like these appear to have overcome the most traumatic of early years, while others continue to struggle, that makes the long-term ERA study so important. Producer: Fiona Hill.

People with severe mental disorders are at much greater risk of dying prematurely compared to the general population. How much are the drugs for some mental illnesses contributing to their risk of disease? Anti psychotic drugs can cause people to rapidly put weight on and increase the risk of developing conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Claudia talks to psychiatrist, Dr Alex Mitchell about whether psychiatrists are doing enough to monitor these potentially health threatening side effects in their patients and what needs to be done.Can bad eating habits be changed just by changing the hand you use to eat? New research on cinema going popcorn eaters has found that these kind of strategies could be a very effective way of disrupting the brain processes in habitual behaviour. Dr David Neal from the University of Southern California explains. Also in the programme marine, Jess Goodell talks about about her role in Mortuary Affairs in the US Marines. Her job was to recover the remains of soldiers in Iraq so they could be returned to the US. She talks about the psychological impact of retrieving bodies often in the aftermath of Improvised Explosive Devices. In her training she was told "PTSD is real - like 'flu." She discusses the reality of living with PTSD and how she dealt with the nightmares and depression on returning home to civilian life.

What makes somebody become an arsonist ? Every week in England and Wales sixty five people are either killed or injured by somebody who has deliberately started a fire. But surprisingly little is known about the different kinds of arsonists, apart from the worrying fact that once they've shown an interest in fire, they then tend to carry on risking life and property by starting more. Claudia Hammond talks to one of the leading experts in the field, Dr Theresa Gannon from the University of Kent. Dr Gannon's research is aiming to fill the gaps in our knowledge about arsonists - mostly men - and from this develop the country's first treatment programme. All In The Mind is given unique access to the country's first peer to peer parenting group, designed to reduce long term mental health problems of children. Piloted in South London, 400 parents have already completed the course, and Dr Crispin Day from the Institute of Psychiatry, tells Claudia Hammond about the results of this unique new approach to early intervention and talks about the possibility of a national roll out. The brothers and sisters of people with autism show a similar pattern of brain activity to their siblings when they're looking at emotional facial expressions. Dr Michael Spencer from the University of Cambridge's Autism Research Centre, led the study, published today. He tells Claudia Hammond that his team have identified reduced activity in a part of the brain associated with empathy and argue it may be a 'biomarker' for a familial risk of autism.

New research from the only NHS funded clinic to treat pathological gamblers is the first of its kind to study the psychological profile of UK gamblers. Claudia finds out about the results of their new study into the links between impulsivity and irrational beliefs, superstition and ritual and why some people may go on to become problem gamblers while others don't. Dr Luke Clark from Cambridge University explains. Gardening for Mental Health: Clinical psychologist, Dr Victoria Winson works with older people in Barking and Dagenham in London and has set up a gardening group called Young At Heart. Claudia reports from their allotment and finds out how it helps older men with mental health difficulties. The Power of Metaphor: Now new research from the University of Stanford has found that something as simple as describing crime as a "beast" or a "virus" can change the way we think about crime and the solutions we suggest to tackle it. But if simple words can make such a difference, what implications does this have for the social policy decisions that affect us all? Assistant Professor of Psychology, Lera Boroditsky talks to Claudia about the power of metaphor to change what we think.

Nobody knows exactly how many people experience mental illness in Hong Kong, but as this former British colony undertakes its first-ever survey of mental health, it's widely believed that rates will match every other developed, industrialised country. And when that data comes in, as Claudia Hammond reports in a special All In The Mind from Hong Kong, the gaps in mental health care will be exposed. For years, the reality of mental illness in Hong Kong has remained hidden: a combination of shame, stigma and denial. Claudia hears from those who have experienced mental distress about the discrimination they suffer, and talks to mental health campaigners and professionals about the urgent need to expand and modernise the service to meet the soaring demand for mental health care.Producer: Fiona Hill.

What exactly is stress and how does it affect our mental health? In collaboration with BBC Lab UK, this week's All in the Mind is launching a pioneering online scientific experiment to test the nation's mental health and well being. Complete the test online and you can get personalised feedback about your own levels of stress, your coping strategies and tips on how to manage stress. Peter Kinderman, clinical psychologist at the University of Liverpool explains how the experiment will help us understand the causes of mental health problems like anxiety and depression. Also in the programme - Angela Clow from the University of Westminster unravels the way the physical effects of chronic stress can hijack the very sensitive workings of the brain to cause long term effects on our mental well being. Also in the programme Mark Williams from the University of Oxford offers practical tips on the techniques of mindfulness and he explains why changing your awareness of your body and surroundings has proven effects on tackling depression and anxiety and can ward off the possible effects of stress.

Siblings with mental health problems - while parents often care for young people with mental health problems it can also raise issues for their siblings. They might have fears for their own mental health or worry about the change in their relationship to their brother or sister. How easy is it to share worries about your own mental health if you feel it's minor in comparison to your brother or sister? And what of the future and the responsibilities you may one day inherit from your parents. The mental health charity, Rethink has launched a new website where siblings can not only get information, but can also share experiences with one another. Lorraine and Olivia share their experiences with Claudia. Is there a way we all grieve? The five stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance were proposed more than forty years ago by the psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and are now taught across the world, But with little evidence that these stages are what people really experience when they are bereaved - how did they become so popular and what research has been done into the process of grief. Predicting the future - why expert forecasters aren't very good at it but we believe them anyway. Why did so many economists not foresee the financial crisis in 2008? But are experts in their field actually better at predicting future events? Psychologists have found experts are often as accurate as chance yet we consistently ask them to predict the future. Claudia is joined by author Dan Gardner and by psychologist Dylan Evans to discuss the reasons why expert predictions fail but why we are still attracted to those who predict confidently even if they end up being spectacularly wrong. Could it all be down to a human aversion to uncertainty?

Compassion for our fellow human beings is something that's long been taught by different faiths and traditions. But could it be used as a tool within therapy to improve mental health? There's a growing interest in compassion-focussed therapy - both for other people and for oneself. It has its roots in the understanding of how the brain evolved. At the moment it is being used most often with people from neglectful or abusive backgrounds. Professor Paul Gilbert, who's the Director of the Mental Health Research Unit at Derbyshire Mental Health Trust and one of his patients - "Jo" - explain what's involved. Could a "junk food" adverts watershed help in the battle against childhood obesity? Since 2009 there's been a ban on adverts for junk food during children's TV programmes and on dedicated children's channels. But advertisements for high fat, salt or sugar foods are still allowed during programmes like soap operas - which families often watch together. At a conference in London this week - "Marketing to Children: Implications for Obesity", Dr Emma Boyland is calling for a 9pm watershed on such adverts to help reduce their influence on children. She explains the psychological responses of children to such advertising in her study in primary schools. Magicians persuade their audiences that their eyes are indeed deceiving them - when they dazzle with disappearing rabbits and great feats of memory. But can our knowledge of the brain teach a magician a thing or two? A husband and wife team of neuroscientists from the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona - Susanna Martinez Conde and Stephen Macknik - have written a book "Sleights of Mind", explaining how magicians can make the mind work against you.

This week: the exclusive results of new research on the emotional, physical and sexual violence happening in teenage relationships. Two years ago Christine Barter, the NSPCC Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, published a research on how teenage boyfriends and girlfriends treat one other. Nearly three quarters of girls and half of boys reported some form of emotional bullying by their partners, while one in three girls reported some form of sexual violence. This week she discusses exclusively on All in the Mind her new research which focuses on young people not in full-time education who weren't covered by the original study. Also in the programme, two young women who've been helped by the youth charity, Fairbridge to help overcome abuse by their ex-boyfriends discuss their experiences. Most of us forget much of what happens to us in everyday life - which is why lists, photographs, memos and reminders are an important part of life. A newly-discovered group of people have an extraordinary capacity to remember nearly everything that's ever happened to them, however trivial. Scientists at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine have dubbed this skill "superior autobiographical memory". They are studying ten exceptional individuals who can recall nearly every experience, however minor, to work how come they don't - or can't - forget. Dr James McGaugh is leading the team and explains why he thinks this could change the whole way we think about memory.

Can mess encourage racism? New research by Dutch researchers has found that in a messy and disordered environments people think more in stereotypes and even racist thinking. Claudia Hammond speaks to Professor Siegwart Lindenberg, a social scientist at Tilburg University in Holland, who also explains how the experiment examined unconscious negative responses to race too. In a messy railway station, people sat on average further from a black person than a white one, whereas in the clean station there was no statistical difference. What implications does this research have for social policy and keeping areas prone to racial violence tidy? Sport and one man's win is another's despair. How we bounce back from defeat is a matter of huge psychological debate. Claudia speaks to Dr Tim Rees from Exeter University who has co-authored a recent paper examining the influence of different feedback on improving performance. The research (in which the participants played darts, blindfolded) found that when positive feedback to failure put the emphasis on change being within your control, there was significant improvement in performance. From psychiatric ward to Psychiatric Tales. Darryl Cunningham's interest in mental health because of his own problems, led him to work in that field too. Although he found he was not quite cut out for such a stressful job, he tells Claudia how he's turned a diary from that time into a published book of comic strips.

Thousands of people across the world who survive devastating earthquakes are living with the trauma of the disaster compounded by the experiences of aftershocks. Claudia Hammond talks to Metin Basoglu, a psychiatrist who has developed a method of mass psychological treatment for survivors of disasters like these, based on his research with over 10,000 people who lived through the Turkish earthquake of 1999. Could a single session of this kind of therapy really make a difference? How strong is the placebo effect? Can sugar pills make you feel better even when you know that's exactly what they are? Claudia talks to Ted Kaptchuk from Harvard University about his findings that for people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, knowingly taking a placebo pill twice a day improved their symptoms. But is it the placebo or the ritual that surrounds taking it?Professor Irene Tracey, pain researcher at Oxford University, says the power of placebo is all about manipulating expectation of the person taking it. She believes this research still required deception. Her research on pain and the brain had led her to suggest that rather than using placebo, changing people's expectations of active drugs could be medically beneficial. Also - why to read someone else's emotion your own face needs to minutely mimic their facial expressions. When the brain gets feedback from the face it gets information on what that person is feeling. And why Botox, which paralyses those muscles reduces the ability to understand emotion.

Why is being ostracised a painful experience? This is one of the questions Professor Kip Williams explores in experiments in his psychology lab at Purdue University, along with measuring aggressive behaviour which ostracism can stir up in someone given the silent treatment. He tells Claudia Hammond that the tools of his trade include a computer game called Cyberball and bottles of hot chilli sauce. An 'All in the Mind' listener describes her state of mind when she attempted suicide several years ago. She contacted the show after last week's item on bereavement by suicide. She says she was not able to think rationally about the consequences of her actions on her family.Claudia talks to people involved in a coaching scheme called Expert Carers Helping Others for the parents of people with anorexia. Looking after someone with the eating disorder can be extremely stressful and family emotional turmoil can make the anorexic person's symptoms even worse. To combat this, Professor Janet Treasure of the Maudsley Hospital set up a national skills coaching course where experienced carers of people with anorexia train other parents on how best to help their daughters or sons recover from their eating disorder. If listeners are interested in joining the ECHO scheme, we advise them to approach the unit where the person with anorexia is being treated to see if that unit is taking part in the project.

New research conducted by Matthew Longo at the Department of Psychological Sciences at Birkbeck, University of London has found that feelings of claustrophobia could be related to our sense of personal space. And it could be determined by the length of our arms.Suicide and Bereavement: On average there is one death from suicide in the UK every 90 minutes. This means of course that a higher number than this find themselves bereaved in the most shocking of circumstances. It is such a unique kind of death that people can find themselves grieving alone and isolated. This month a new support group is starting, run by the Samaritans in conjunction with Cruse Bereavement Care. The idea is to bring together their expertise in bereavement with the Samaritans' experience of issues surrounding suicide. The project is initially being launched in London and for more information e-mail [email protected] or call 020-7439-1406.Reporting Neuroscience: Hardly a day goes by without a headline suggesting an area in the brain will light up if we eat chocolate or meet someone we like. But are we reading too much into this kind of research? Diane Beck, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois, feels some of results are over-simplified by researchers and journalists, and tell us much less about ourselves than we might like to think.

Professor James Fallon tells Claudia Hammond his tale of self-discovery: a story with some dark and disturbing turns involving psychopaths and brain scans, family skeletons, some very personal genetic revelations and the power of parental love.Two people who experience mirror-pain and mirror-touch synaesthesia explain what it's like to see someone being hurt and feeling the sensation of pain or touch in the same place themselves. Michael Banissy, a neuropsychologist at University College, London talks about his research on this strange phenomenon. He looked at what's happening in the brains of these people and discovered that they are also extra-empathetic emotionally.With spring in full blossom and summer on the way, Claudia talks to Harvard psychiatrist John Sharp about the sometimes profound impact of the passing months and changing seasons on our emotional lives. He began to notice seasonal changes in his patients and that inspired him to survey research on how the time of year influences state of mind. The result was his book 'The Emotional Calendar'.

Presenter Claudia Hammond starts a new series of All in the Mind by joining mothers and babies at a travelling, high-tech language lab in a Children's Centre in London's East End.The testing session is just one of many to be carried out over the next two years in the communities of two of London's most deprived boroughs, Tower Hamlets and Newham. Parents and babies are being invited to participate in a novel psychological study to investigate whether researchers can pick up very early indicators of later language or attention problems in infants as young as 6 months. The babies will be retested and assessed again when they are two years old.The travelling 'babylab' is a high tech computer screen, set up in local children's centres. The baby sits in front of it and is played various videos and sounds aimed at testing how sensitive he or she is to speech and other aspects of their environments. The computer screen also contains a camera and eye movement tracker, so as well as testing the infants it also records all their responses to what they are seeing and hearing. For example, at 6 months old, babies should be very interested in looking at faces and mouths when people are speaking, learning which mouth shapes match particular speech sounds. At this age they are likely to know the difference between the look of a mouth saying 'ba' as opposed to 'ga'. This is part of their earliest language development. If they are not able to make these and other discriminations, it could be a sign of language and other developmental problems to come. This seems to be the case from studies of babies in formal university laboratories. But this new project aims to find out whether reliable predictors of language and learning difficulties can be picked up with testing equipment out in the real world. And in particular in communities at the lower end of the socio-economic scale. Children from this section of society are at greater risk of language and other developmental problems than children in better-off areas.The community testing sessions are also aimed at increasing parents' understanding and appreciation of how their babies learn about language and the world around them, and demonstrating just how clever their infants are - even at 6 months.The research project is run by the University of East London and Birkbeck College London. The psychologists hope their findings will in the future allow the identification of individual children with potential problems at the youngest age possible. The idea is that the earliest that weaknesses are identified, the greater the chance the children can be helped to catch up in the development of their communication and social skills.

One in four of us is said to have a mental health problem. It's a statistic that's almost as well-used and well-known as the entreaty to eat your five a day. But where has this near-ubiquitous statistic come from, and is there research that backs it up ? Claudia talks to neuroscientist, Jamie Horder, about his personal quest to find the original source for the one in four figure and to Til Wykes, Professor of Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation at the Institute of Psychiatry King's College London and Jerome Wakefield, Professor of Social Work at New York University and co-author of The Loss of Sadness, about the complexities of measuring rates of mental illness. Providing mental health care on remote islands is a difficult business, and territories on the other side of the world present particular problems. Eleven years ago, Dr Tim McInerney began visiting the Falkland Islands and became their "remote" psychiatrist. He manages his case load by telephone and then twice a year, takes a trip out there, to visit his patients and the small group of staff who help run mental health services. On his latest visit, as a new Mental Health Act is just about to be introduced by the Port Stanley Council, he takes with him an All In the Mind recorder, and keeps a diary. He talks to service users who describe the challenges of being ill, when everybody, everywhere, knows who you are. Programmes like Who Do You Think You Are on BBC1 are extremely popular, and more and more people are tracing their family trees. Claudia hears from Peter Fischer, Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Graz in Austria, about intriguing new research suggesting that thinking and focussing on your ancestors, can make you smarter!Producer: Fiona Hill.

Adoption These days the secrecy surrounding adoption has lessened and many children are interested to know where they come from and may receive letters from their birth families or even meet up with them. Claudia Hammond reviews the evidence for this approach and also looks at how social networking could change adoption.

Portraits of the Mind Portraits of the Mind, is a collection of images visualizing the brain from antiquity through to the present day.How to map the brain.The Human Connectome Project is a major new project which will map how different areas of the brain connect to each other and help understand what makes us human. Others say we would learn more about our minds by looking at the minute detail, at how brain cells communicate with each other within individual circuits. Gero Miesenbork the Wayneflete Professor of Physiology at Oxford University and Tim Behrens from the Human Connectome Project explain what each of these approaches can tell us about human behaviour. Online Psychological Support for Cancer There are 7 Maggie's Centres around the country providing a sanctuary for people with cancer, or those caring for someone with cancer. But not everyone can travel to a centre, perhaps because of distance, health reasons or work. For those people there is now a new online service which provides not only support but crucially a clinical psychologist takes part in every session.

John O'Donoghue's first admission to a psychiatric hospital came when he was 16 years old. He experienced the final days of the huge old asylums like Claybury and Friern Barnet well as ECT, homelessness and prison. He tells Claudia Hammond about how education turned his life around. He's a poet and now teaches creative writing. This year his memoir, Sectioned: A Life Interrupted, scooped the MIND Book of the Year prize. Digital Memories: When family members die, many of us inherit photos and maybe even old love letters. But in the digital age, with huge amounts of data stored on hard drives, servers and even in the cloud, how will our family members make sense of our digital legacy ? Dr Richard Banks and Dr Abigail Sellen from the Microsoft Research Laboratory at Cambridge University talk to Claudia Hammond about technology heirlooms, digital curation and the emotional importance of memories.Mental Illness, fairness and the Work Capability Test: All In the Mind hears from Linda in Carlisle, Cumbria, who suffers from depression, panic attacks and agoraphobia but failed the new, compulsory medical assessment and lost her benefits. Sue Thomson from DACE, Disability Association Carlisle and Eden tells Claudia Hammond how her organisation is overwhelmed by the number of people who've been judged as being fit for work after the controversial new medical, but who want to appeal. And, in the wake of Professor Malcolm Harrington's critical report into the WCA, Jane Harris from Rethink calls for the mass migration of claimants on Incapacity Benefit onto the new benefit to be halted, until the current medical assessment can be judged as being fit for purpose.Producer: Fiona Hill.

Flashbacks are intrusive memories that can plague people after a traumatic incident. Now there's a possibility that playing certain kinds of computer games in the hours after the traumatic event could prevent images flashing back into the mind when they're not wanted. Emily Holmes at Oxford University wants to develop what she calls a cognitive vaccine. This would be used in the hours straight after an event - not as a treatment for post traumatic stress disorder, but to prevent disturbing memories from taking root.Taste and Music: Professor Charles Spence is the Head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory based at Oxford University and is investigating how the brain can match up sounds and tastes. And one restaurant in Switzerland is making music a crucial part of the dining experience with specially-composed tunes accompanying each course. Therapeutic Design: Most people with dementia want to stay in their own homes for as long as possible, provided they can cope. Researchers from Stirling University have found that the adoption of simple design tricks can extend that period at home. The university's Dementia Services Development Centre has designed a dementia-friendly home and Director Professor June Andrews told Claudia that it's all about trying to see a home from the point of view of the person with dementia.Producer Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Forensic Science, Psychology and Human Cognition: When the Oregon attorney, Brandon Mayfield, was arrested for the Madrid bombings six years ago, the FBI's fingerprint examiners claimed they were 100% sure that his fingerprints were on the bag containing detonators and explosives. But they were wrong. And this sensational error has drawn attention ever since, to the widely held, but erroneous belief, that fingerprint identification is infallible. Cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists have challenged forensic science as a whole to raise its game; and acknowledge that errors in fingerprinting and other forensic disciplines are inevitable because of the architecture of cognition and the way our brains process information. Claudia Hammond talks to Dr Itiel Dror, cognitive neuroscientist, whose groundbreaking studies first drew attention to the fact that individual forensic examiners can be swayed by context and affected by bias. Jim Fraser, Professor of Forensic Science from the University of Strathclyde and the Forensic Science Regulator for England and Wales, Andrew Rennison, discuss the steps being taken to amend procedures and protocols. Testosterone and City Traders: Dr John Coates used to work on Wall Street as a derivatives trader, and during the Dot Com bubble became convinced that he was witnessing hormone surges and slumps in his fellow traders that amounted to clinical levels. His subsequent research at the University of Cambridge has established the size of the changes in the naturally occurring steroids like testosterone and cortisol changes and he's now trying to demonstrate in the laboratory how these changes actually affect decision making and the willingness to take risks. The psychology of Would-be Suicide Bombers and Organisers of Suicide Missions: In the first study of its kind, Ariel Merari, Professor of Psychology at Tel Aviv University, has analysed failed suicide bombers in prison in an attempt to establish what motivated them to volunteer to kill themselves, and others.Producer: Fiona Hill.

Psychologists at the University of Exeter have found that young offenders are two to three times as likely as everyone else to have had a head injury. Huw Williams, Associate Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at Exeter University spoke exclusively to Claudia Hammond about the implications of his study.Twenty Four Hour Memory Loss: A few years ago a film came out called 50 First Dates. It starred Drew Barrymore as a woman who had had a car accident which resulted in her losing her memory for the days' events every time she went to sleep. Now its happened in real life, a 48 year old woman asked Dr Christine Smith of the Department of Psychiatry at University of California San Diego for help. Dr Smith's account of this unusual case study has been published in the journal Neuropsychologia. How to Stop Worrying: Ad Kerkhof is a clinical psychologist at VU University in Amsterdam. He written a book aimed at any of us who worry, explaining how we can train ourselves to stop worrying.

John, an infantry officer for 19 years, was held up at gunpoint, bombed and saw friends and colleagues killed in action. He tells Claudia Hammond about the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that he suffered when he left the armed forces. And in the first-ever UK study of military personnel in a theatre of war, in Iraq, to test mental health, the military is revealed to have experienced less psychological distress than police or fire officers. One of the study's co-authors, Professor Simon Wessely, Director of the King's Centre for Military Health Research, describes the mental health lessons that are being being learned from the front line.Antidepressants and Morality: Molly Crockett from the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cambridge says how a particular group of anti depressants, SSRIs, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, have been found to increase morality by raising the levels of Serotonin in the brain. Community Treatment Orders: Introduced two years ago to enable people with mental illness to leave hospital and continue their treatment at home, new figures show ten times more CTOs have been issued than original Department of Health predictions. Reka, who has a diagnosis of bi-polar disorder, describes her experience of spending a year subject to a CTO, compelled to take injections of anti-psychotic medication which she says left her "like a zombie". Anthony Deary from the Care Quality Commission, Tony Maden, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry from Imperial College in London and Dr Tony Zigmond, mental health law lead for the Royal College of Psychiatrists discuss the reasons for the ballooning use of CTOs. Producer: Fiona Hill.