Why going Gps-free trains your brain
Memorising a run can boost your grey matter
USING YOUR PHONE or GPS to find your way on a run could rob your brain of a workout. Professor Eleanor Maguire, a neuroscientist at University College London, recently showed that two areas of the brain – the retrosplenial cortex and the hippocampus – help us create a cognitive map when we’re orienting ourselves. This develops a more neuron-dense hippocampus (associated with memory, perception and imagination). Using GPS denies the brain a broader spatial context from which it can learn, says Julia Frankenstein, a psychologist at the University of Mannheim, Germany. ‘It’s likely that the more we rely on technology, the less we build up our own cognitive maps.’