You Really Are What You Know

jd writes "There has been research for some time showing that London cab driver brains differ from other people's, with considerable enlargement of those areas dealing with spacial relationships and navigation. Follow-up work showed it wasn't simply a product of driving a lot (PDF). However, up until now it has been disputed as to whether the brain structure led people to become London cabbies or whether the brain structure changed as a result of their intensive training (which requires rote memorization of essentially the entire street map of one of the largest and least-organized cities in the world). Well, this latest study answers that. MRI scans before and after the training show that the regions of the brain substantially grow as a result of the training, and they're quite normal beforehand. The practical upshot of this research is that — even for adult brains, which aren't supposed to change much — what you learn structurally changes your brain. Significantly."

Comments

You would have to be differently abled

[Anonymous Coward]

To navigate a city looks like it was planned by throwing spaghetti at a wall and calling it a map.

Re:You would have to be differently abled

[TWX]

To navigate a city looks like it was planned by throwing spaghetti at a wall and calling it a map.

And to think, that's after the Great Fire of London in 1666, and the subsequent planned rebuilding strategies to improve it! I'd had to think what it was like before that!

Re:You would have to be differently abled

[AaronLS]

I think the focus of the rebuilding was on enforcing building codes that would prevent future catastrophic fires.

They did try to improve the city layout, but the actual layout I don't believe was improved significantly because it would have meant buying out many property owners and the city couldn't afford that nor fight against the public outrage of displacing so many people. I seem to also remember from a documentary that so many took the initiative to begin rebuilding their homes and businesses so quickly that there wasn't any proper surveying done, plus the damage was so extensive it was difficult to tell where walls were previously. So property lines moved slightly and made things worse than before in some cases.

Re:You would have to be differently abled

[GrahamCox]

iTo navigate a city looks like it was planned by throwing spaghetti at a wall and calling it a map.

Nevertheless, London is pretty understandable if you have to go there more than a few times. While I wouldn't claim to know all of it well, I know certain sections of it fairly well. It's fun to use your mental model of where things are to try and find a new route that brings you out close to your destination (probably best not tried if you are pressed for time). It doesn't always work but can lead to new discoveries.

When I drive in cities that use the grid model, I find myself bored. They are far too predictable and lose the power to surprise and entertain. It also is mildly irritating that there are no true short cuts as there are so few diagonals. The distance between any two points is always an integral multiple of "a block". How is that any fun?

Re:You would have to be differently abled

[fotoflojoe]

I grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. The first time I visited London, I felt right at home.

Changes your brain?

[fahrbot-bot]

The practical upshot of this research is that — even for adult brains, which aren't supposed to change much — what you learn structurally changes your brain. Significantly.

Okay. Now I *really* feel sorry for Windows programmers/admins :-)

Re:Changes your brain?

[TWX]

I used to blame Bill for all of the ills in the profession I work in, but I've recently had a change of heart...

In the years I've worked I've made about $500,000 in salary. 90% of the time I've worked on Windows machines, and frequently the same Windows machines, year after year, as the problems can't truly be fixed.

I've made half-a-million bucks because of Microsoft! Woohoo!

Why did I waste my cranium space?!

[TWX]

Great... I wasted my space in my head on Star Trek...

Re:Why did I waste my cranium space?!

[poena.dare]

Waste?

If you have been a real Star Trek fan then there have been significant changes in your brain that allow you to better understand social justice, equality, currency-less societal structures, diplomacy, human-alien sexual congress, and the advisability of wearing red apparel.

Not a waste at all!

" Even for adult brains, which aren't supposed to

[Anonymous Coward]

" Even for adult brains, which aren't supposed to change much"

How is it that this is still passed around as fact. This idea is incredibly outdated.

Good news!

[mosb1000]

This is good news for you then, since it means that it's never too late to forget all that junk.

Meditation

[Laxori666]

Anyone who meditates effectively for any length of time can attest to the fact that the brain can change quite dramatically as a result of what you do with it. Things that I did not even know were possible have happened to me as a result of it, and not in a subtle way, either.

Re:The question is how long does it take?

[martin-boundary]

Along the same lines, do some types of jobs lead to stable equilibrium configurations of some sort (which cannot be easily escaped)? For example, does learning to take orders and being a good employee reconfigure the brain in different ways than being an entrepreneur and making up your own decisions? Is it possible to become the latter if you've already spent 20 years being the former?

Re:" Even for adult brains, which aren't supposed

[Anonymous Coward]

He still has a century on the people he's insulting, champ.

Re:" Even for adult brains, which aren't supposed

[PopeRatzo]

" Even for adult brains, which aren't supposed to change much"

How is it that this is still passed around as fact. This idea is incredibly outdated.

Absolutely. There's a recent study, done at Mass Gen, that shows adults who practice mindfulness medication, such as tai chi, benefit from measurable physical changes to their brain in as little as 8 weeks of 20min/day meditation. Even older adults. And these changes occur to the regions of the brain that are associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and dealing with stress.

I teach Chinese martial arts, including tai chi chuan, and love to point this out to my students.

By the way, tai chi is really good for tech types like programmers. It's fun and the martial arts aspects are extremely cool. You also get to use swords (long swords (jian) and broadswords (dao)) as well as staffs and spears. Tai chi also puts lead in your pencil, if you catch my drift.

Re:Not what you know

[jd]

The following is what I could dig up on the effects of multi-lingualism. It does impact the brain in many different areas and there appears to be a growing belief that learning a new language at any age will have a pronounced impact on your ability to think and reason, but that if taught young the improvements are far more dramatic still. I didn't want to clutter the submission with this stuff, especially as these studies don't have nearly the same level of rigour as the MRI scans of the taxi drivers (where a whole host of variables can now be examined directly versus the somewhat more indirect studies done on polyglots). They're also a bit more controversial, with opposing studies claiming that the benefits either don't exist or don't exist in the way that is claimed.

http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0012brain.html
http://www.sfn.org/index.aspx?pagename=brainbriefings_thebilingualbrain
http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/11/10/cognitive-ability-improved-when-bilingual/20740.html

(Press coverage adds yet another level of indirectness and potential sources of errors, but there's still some useful info here)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/science/31conversation.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3739690.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/feb/18/bilingual-alzheimers-brain-power-multitasking

The impact of music on learning is also not very well studied - I can find press links that talk about the research, but not much actual research.

http://www.livescience.com/5327-music-memory-connection-brain.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070801122226.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3095807.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12135590

However, the story gets MUCH more complicated...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15791973
http://www.mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/misc/amnesia.html

There IS a fascinating "reverse" case, where alteration of the brain resulted in a remarkable alteration in musical ability, but as far as I know there has been no real work done on what changes the brain has undergone as a consequence of the new obsession.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Cicoria

If anyone can add to the list, that would be great, especially for the different areas you were mentioning.