At the next junction, turn off … your brain
SATNAV SABOTAGES YOUR SENSE OF DIRECTION, SAYS STUDY ON HOW DRIVERS FIND THEIR WAY
IT is the insult aimed at minicab drivers seen pulling unexpected manoeuvres as they rely on a satnav: you don’t know where you’re going.
Now London researchers have found that motorists who rely on computer navigation devices do in fact “switch off ” part of their brain in the process.
A University College London team took 24 volunteers on a two-hour walking tour of Soho, then asked them to “drive” a computer-simulated car through the area’s narrow streets the following day.
They detected spikes of activity in two key areas of the brain, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, when the volunteers were forced to navigate for themselves. But where they relied on instructions from a satnav, no activity above normal levels was detected.
The findings support earlier UCL research showing that the hippocampi of London black taxi drivers expand as they learn “The Knowledge”.
The new study suggests drivers who follow satnav directions do not engage their hippocampus — effectively limiting learning the street network. This is likely to intensify the battle between black cab drivers — who have to pass Transport for London’s Knowledge test to earn their licence — and the growing army of Uber and minicab drivers who rely on satnavs.
Dr Hugo Spiers, of UCL’s experimental psychology department, said: “Entering a junction such as Seven Dials, where seven streets meet, would enhance activity in the hippocampus. If you are having a hard time navigating the mass of streets in a city, you are likely putting high demands on your hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.
“When we have technology telling us where to go, however, these parts of the brain simply don’t respond to the street network. Our brain has switched off its interest in the streets around us.”
The UCL team used MRI brain scans of the volunteers to show that when new streets were entered, the brain “indexed” the number of options available on future journeys.
The hippocampus is the brain region involved in memory and navigation, while the prefrontal cortex is involved in planning and decision-making.
The study was published in Nature Communications. Dr Spiers is now on secondment at The Centric Lab, a London research organisation that
uses neuroscience to inform building and city design.
“Our new findings allow us to look at the layout of a city or building and consider how the memory systems of the brain may likely react,” he said.
“We could look at the layouts of care homes and hospitals to identify areas that might be particularly challenging for people with dementia. Similarly, we could design new buildings that are dementia-friendly from the outset.”