- Joined
- Jul 28, 2003
Here is a good one!!! If this is true, then bus drivers must be geniuses - the miles they have to travel here in the Lower Mainland!!!!
Why Taxi Drivers Have Bigger Brains
The next time you have just minutes to get to the airport and you put your fate in the hands of a taxi driver, take comfort in this: Chances are, that taxi driver has a bigger brain than you do.
A new study published in the journal Nature concludes that the type of navigational skills used by taxi drivers releases a flurry of cell activity in different parts of the brain when they identify where they are, where they are going, and when they have arrived.
Researchers from Brandeis University in Massachusetts enlisted seven epileptic patients to play a taxi-driver computer simulation game. These volunteers were chosen because they already had electrodes implanted in their brains, making it easy for the researchers to track their brain activity. The participants played the game, searching a virtual town for passengers and then delivering them to various shops. The results showed that we humans use a network of brain cells to help us navigate. "In other words, these cells form a kind of map of the environment that you're navigating," lead researcher Michael J. Kahana told Reuters. When we're in a familiar location, cells in the brain's hippocampus respond, while cells in the parahippocampal cortex respond when a familiar landmark comes into view.
All of which may explain why research conducted three years ago at London's Institute of Neurology found that the brains of cabbies actually grow to a larger-than-average size after years on the job, reports the BBC News Online. Specifically, the hippocampus enlarges and adapts to help them store a detailed mental map of the city.
Scientists--as well as parents and teachers--have long known that we learn better when we're motivated. Cab drivers are motivated to learn the most efficient routes so they can get more passengers and earn more money. This motivation encourages them to learn the network of roads, which may also help them build their brains.
http://cdn-channels.netscape.com/cp/fte/taxidrivers/i/taxidrivers135.jpg
Why Taxi Drivers Have Bigger Brains
The next time you have just minutes to get to the airport and you put your fate in the hands of a taxi driver, take comfort in this: Chances are, that taxi driver has a bigger brain than you do.
A new study published in the journal Nature concludes that the type of navigational skills used by taxi drivers releases a flurry of cell activity in different parts of the brain when they identify where they are, where they are going, and when they have arrived.
Researchers from Brandeis University in Massachusetts enlisted seven epileptic patients to play a taxi-driver computer simulation game. These volunteers were chosen because they already had electrodes implanted in their brains, making it easy for the researchers to track their brain activity. The participants played the game, searching a virtual town for passengers and then delivering them to various shops. The results showed that we humans use a network of brain cells to help us navigate. "In other words, these cells form a kind of map of the environment that you're navigating," lead researcher Michael J. Kahana told Reuters. When we're in a familiar location, cells in the brain's hippocampus respond, while cells in the parahippocampal cortex respond when a familiar landmark comes into view.
All of which may explain why research conducted three years ago at London's Institute of Neurology found that the brains of cabbies actually grow to a larger-than-average size after years on the job, reports the BBC News Online. Specifically, the hippocampus enlarges and adapts to help them store a detailed mental map of the city.
Scientists--as well as parents and teachers--have long known that we learn better when we're motivated. Cab drivers are motivated to learn the most efficient routes so they can get more passengers and earn more money. This motivation encourages them to learn the network of roads, which may also help them build their brains.
http://cdn-channels.netscape.com/cp/fte/taxidrivers/i/taxidrivers135.jpg
