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In a 2017 study, researchers asked subjects to navigate
a virtual simulation of London’s Soho neighborhood and monitored their brain activity,
specifically the hippocampus, which is integral to spatial navigation.
Those who were guided by directions showed less activity in this part of the brain
than participants who navigated without the device.
They wrote:
“The hippocampus makes an internal map of the environment
and this map becomes active only when you are engaged in navigating and not using GPS.”
Studies have long shown the hippocampus is highly susceptible to experience.
(London’s taxi drivers famously have
greater gray-matter volume in the hippocampus as a consequence of memorizing the city’s labyrinthine streets.)
Meanwhile, atrophy in that part of the brain is linked to devastating conditions,
including Post Traumatic Syndrome and Alzheimer's disease!
When people use tools such as GPS, they tend to engage less with navigation.
Therefore, brain area responsible for navigation is less used,
and consequently their brain areas involved in navigation tend to shrink.
If we are paying attention to our environment, we are stimulating our hippocampus,
and a bigger hippocampus seems to be protective against Alzheimer’s disease.
When we get lost, it activates the hippocampus,
it gets us completely out of the habit mode.
Getting lost is good!
Done safely, getting lost
could be a good thing.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
That's pretty amazing. I tend to get lost a lot, even with GPS, which I might not be smart enough to use. Our tech will change our brains, and maybe not all for the worse, I hope...
ReplyDeleteWhen . I first started as a blood courier, I got lost more times than I want to count. I refused to get a GPS, wanting to get a feel for the country. Only early this year did my supervisor give me his GPS since our territory had grown so much. It does make it easier, but I still try to memorize the routes it gives me. :-)
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