GPS Rots Your Brain

I read that somewhere on the news a few weeks back. People are getting so used to using GPS in their cars (Global Positioning System), that they use it even when they are going to place that are familiar, like work, or the store, or the babysitter. They are giving up their own inherent navigational abilities and using a machine... And that is apparently not good for some aspect of the brain and our thinking processes.

Researchers at McGill University found that people who use GPS have decreased activity in the hippocampus. That’s the area of the brain responsible for memory and the ability to use what you know about your environment to create shortcuts or find new routes. And, if you don’t USE your hippocampus, you lose your hippocampus. Using the GPS too much causes that area of the brain to atrophy, which increases you risk for memory problems, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. On the flip side, London taxi-drivers, who've been driving taxis for a long time, have a large hippocampus...


Figuring out where we're going and how we're going to get there... even if it is a familiar place, keeps the spatial aspeccts of our brain engaged... For a new place, it really gets it working!! They recommend that if you are going to use GPS, that you use it on your way to a new place, but then navigate home under your own steam... without using it...