GPS, spatial memory, cab driving, and Alzheimers

GPS and spatial memory

Dahmani, L., Bohbot, V.D. Habitual use of GPS negatively impacts spatial memory during self-guided navigation. Sci Rep 10, 6310 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62877-0

Abstract: Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation devices and applications have become ubiquitous over the last decade. However, it is unclear whether using GPS affects our own internal navigation system, or spatial memory, which critically relies on the hippocampus. We assessed the lifetime GPS experience of 50 regular drivers as well as various facets of spatial memory, including spatial memory strategy use, cognitive mapping, and landmark encoding using virtual navigation tasks. We first present cross-sectional results that show that people with greater lifetime GPS experience have worse spatial memory during self-guided navigation, i.e. when they are required to navigate without GPS. In a follow-up session, 13 participants were retested three years after initial testing. Although the longitudinal sample was small, we observed an important effect of GPS use over time, whereby greater GPS use since initial testing was associated with a steeper decline in hippocampal-dependent spatial memory. Importantly, we found that those who used GPS more did not do so because they felt they had a poor sense of direction, suggesting that extensive GPS use led to a decline in spatial memory rather than the other way around. These findings are significant in the context of society’s increasing reliance on GPS.

H/t Peter Rothman.

Cab drivers less likely to have dementia

Ian Taylor, Scientists (and taxi drivers) may have discovered the secret to beating dementia, BBC Science Focus, March 23, 2025.

Researchers from Harvard University studied the working lives and causes of death in millions of Americans. After comparing some 400 occupations, they found that taxi and ambulance drivers were the least likely to die from Alzheimer’s disease.

Being good at finding your way around might help you stick around longer. That’s the theory, anyway. Bus drivers, for example, don’t seem to have the same protection, possibly because they tend to drive the same routes.

“Our findings raise the possibility that frequent navigational and spatial processing tasks, as performed by taxi and ambulance drivers, might be associated with some protection against Alzheimer’s disease,” the authors wrote.

H/t Jim Lai.

The study being referenced: Alzheimer’s disease mortality among taxi and ambulance drivers: population based cross sectional study BMJ 2024; 387 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-082194 (Published 17 December 2024)