Slashdot Mirror
Satellite Navigation 'Switches Off' Parts of Brain Used For Navigation, Study Finds (scientificamerican.com)
A new study published today in the journal Nature Communications reveals some of the drawbacks of using satellite navigation (SatNav) technology. After scanning the brains of 24 volunteers as they explored a simulation through the streets of London's Soho district, researchers from the University of London found that listening to a satellite navigation's instructions "switches off" activity in parts of the brain used for navigation. Scientific American reports: The researchers found that a brain structure called the hippocampus, which is involved in both memory and spatial navigation, appears to encode two different maps of the environment: One tracks the distance to the final destination as the crow flies and is encoded by the frontal region of the hippocampus, the other tracks the "true path" to the goal and is encoded by its rear region. During the navigation tasks, the hippocampus acts like a flexible guidance system, flipping between these two maps according to changing demands. Activity in the hippocampal rear region acts like a homing signal, increasing as the goal gets closer. Analysis of the brain-scanning data revealed activity in the rear right of the hippocampus increased whenever the participants entered a new street while navigating. It also varied with the number of new path options available. The more alternatives there were, the greater the brain activity. The researchers also found that activity in the front of the hippocampus was associated with a property called centrality, defined by the proximity of each new street to the center of the network. Further, they observed activity in the participants' prefrontal cortices when they were forced to make a detour and had to replan their route -- and this, too, increased in relation to the number of options available. Intriguingly, when participants followed SatNav instructions, however, brain activity in these regions "switched off." Together, the new findings suggest the rear portion of the hippocampus reactivates spatial memories of possible navigation paths, with more available paths evoking more activity, and that the prefrontal cortex may contribute to path-planning by searching though different route options and selecting the best one.
I prefer to have the map on the screen with a north-up orientation no matter which way I'm travelling. I find it helps me keep my bearings and learn routes rather than surrender to the machine's step-by-step instructrions.
j'ai découvert une démonstration vraiment admirable (de ce théorème général) que cette si
Scientists determined that those people who made use of machine washing rather than hand washing had diminished hand strength and neurological motor communication necessary for fine motor control. Seamstresses who bought thread rather than using the spinning jenny were similarly impaired. But worst off were teamsters who used the internal combustion trucks rather than teams of horses and used forklifts and other mechanical devices rather than loading their vehicles by hand. Their overall body strength was much reduced.
Bruce Perens.
If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.
There are plenty of problems left in this world to apply unused brain tissue to. . . Freeing up brain matter to be applied to new problems is how we progress as a species.
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
Since our brains have to multitask when driving, perhaps we simply drop the redundant task?
Perhaps, if you have a passenger sitting there with a map, you don't fully trust them?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
You don't trust the person, the SatNav is there to guide you through missed turns, traffic jams ahead, and generally is a superior navigator to anyone you've ever had in the passenger seat reading a map, because the SatNav has access to more and better information.
Exactly. They really had to research that the parts of the brain that handle navigation aren't active when we aren't navigating?!? That's part of the reason we use a GPS in the first place... so we don't have to think about it. (the key reason being, we don't have a clue where the hell we're going.)
"Switches off parts of Brain" is just a very dramatic way of saying "You won't remember the route".
"Oooo, I better read the article, lest I become permanently retarded next time I use a GPS!"
From the title, it sounds like part of your brain is lost forever.
Question is not really if you are using same part of brain while navigating with or without GPS (it seems obvious there will be different parts activated). Interesting questions are:
- if after navigating with GPS for long enough, your ability to navigate without it in new terrain is hindered considerably, assuming you have grown up without reliance on GPS?
- is new generation which relied on GPS from very young age measurably worse at non-aided navigaton that other people?
It isn't losing cognitive ability, it is paying attention to what is going on.
I bet if you took that exact same group and gave them a guide who gave them directions all the time the exact same situation would develop.
I had a guide for a hiking trip I did and while I can recreate parts of the trip from memory it is only the parts where I had studied the map of where we were and when.
People are lazy. If they don't have to think about something they won't.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.