麻豆约拍 - Radio 4 - All in the Mind

Decision making
When are we in the right frame of mind to make the right decision?听 It might seem that we spend our lives making decision and yet some are harder than others - whether it's what mid-afternoon snack to have, or which pain relief would be best during child-birth - some decisions are right at the time, and some need reassessment.听听 Professors Peter Ayton and Daniel Read discuss the merits of making a decision ahead of time, and how we can predict what our future self desires!

Synaesthesia
A synaesthete is someone who sees colours when certain words are spoken, or sounds heard.听 Neuropsychologist Catherine Mulvenna from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in London is studying a group of synaesthetes to find out which parts of their brains are stimulated when certain sounds are heard.听听 The reasoning is that if colours and pictures are produced when certain words or even music is heard, then which parts of the brain are active in this process.听听 It seems that if you study the brains of non-synaesthetes (the majority of us) who have been asked to think of a colour or picture when words are heard, different areas of the brain are responsive than those of a synaesthete under the same test.听

If you are a synaesthete, or think you might be, and would be interested in helping Catherine with her research, please download this short听.

Writing your own admission notes
Research is going on at the Maudsley and Institute of Psychiatry in London to find out if it is benificial for mental health patients to contribute to their medical notes. Dr Susan Grey talks about work done by Adam Duncan and colleagues who have been speaking to patients after their arrival at the hospital and writing down their experiences of being admitted.听 They have found out useful information on their reasons for coming to hospital. Even though the NICE guidelines suggest that it would be good to have patients experience of NHS facilites taken into account, this is the first instance of it happening in an official capacity. The accounts are typed up, and agreed by the patient as a true record of their feelings and experiences, then kept in the notes for appropriate doctors and consultants to read in the future. So far they have seen that some patients hadn't realised they needed to be in a psychiatric environment and so when they arrived, were surprised and alarmed at the prospect. Others had been to the hospital before and were willing to suggest areas in which they felt the staff could help new patients settle in more. Dr Grey hopes that the work can continue and be taken on by more medical staff in the hospital.