Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

pathfinder

There’s a reason why cabbies are (usually) so good at finding their way around: The knowledge becomes, figuratively, “hard-wired” into their brains. A recent study at Brandeis University studied the ways in which a virtual taxi game affected study participants’ brain activity and found that the activity particularly triggered areas of the brain related to learning and memory. (BBC: “Clue to cab drivers’ brainpower” - 09/10/03)

As part of the game, the players had to drive around a virtual town, search for passengers and deliver them to various shops.

As they did so, the researchers measured the activity of key neurons in their brains. They found that neurons in the hippocampus responded to particular locations.

The hippocampus is associated with learning and memory.

They found that neurons in the parahippocampal cortex responded more to landmarks.

Tests on rats have shown similar results.

“Cells throughout the frontal and temporal lobes responded to the subjects’ navigational goals and to conjunctions of place, goal and view,” they said…

Three years ago, researchers at the Institute of Neurology in London showed that cab drivers’ grey matter enlarges and adapts to help them store a detailed mental map of the city.

Taxi drivers given brain scans by scientists had a larger hippocampus compared with other people.

The scientists also found part of the hippocampus grew larger as the taxi drivers spent more time in the job.