Adult Brains Grow From Specialist Use 260
Xemu writes "Researchers at University College of London's Institute of Neurology have discovered that taxi drivers grow more brain cells in the area associated with memory. Dr Eleanor Maguire says, 'We believe the brain increased in gray matter volume because of the huge amount of data memorized.' She warns against the use of GPS and says it will possibly affect the brain changes seen in this study. This research is the first to show that the brains of adults can grow in response to specialist use." London cabbies, unlike their American counterparts, have to learn the layout of streets and the locations of thousands of places of interest in order to get a license.
Like every other muscle (Score:4, Insightful)
My bulging typing fingers and keen google-foo are testament to that.
Re:Like every other muscle (Score:5, Funny)
My right arm and wrist are stronger than my left
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squats (Score:2)
I prefer squats with my grey matter.
Cause or Effect? (Score:5, Insightful)
A huge problem with any of these correlation studies is determining, accurately, which way the cause->effect relationship runs.
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Also while there are some cab drivers who should be doing something else, There are those whose only real talent is directions and locations.
Re:Cause or Effect? (Score:5, Interesting)
A good question, but RTFA:
Hopefully they'll actually follow the pre-training drivers through all the way through training so they don't compare future wash-outs with present successful cabbies rather than future successful cabbies with present successful cabbies. If so, it should go a long way toward answering your question.
The ultimate would be to compare the same population of cabbies vs. bus drivers (control group) through their entire careers. Obviously that'd be a long-term study, and it will become impossible when "the Knowledge" is obsoleted by GPS mapping software. (I say "when" rather than "if". It will happen sooner or later.)
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I wouldn't assume GPS will have any effect. Who knows, maybe people will learn the city faster and more thoroughly by repeatedly seeing themselves move through a computer-generated map.
There seems to be an assumption that people won't learn what they don
Re:Cause or Effect? (Score:4, Interesting)
I generalized from similar observations:
In general, it seems that when it's more convenient and about as effective to use a machine as to do something by hand, people will no longer take the effort to do it themselves. And memorization (of prices, phone numbers, street names, anything) is way harder for people than for computers.
If the software works well enough that cabbies can reliably enter an address and find the street, why should cabbies be made to remember all the street names? And if it works so well that it can reliably pick an optimal route (including traffic, construction, etc.) why should they even remember how to get anywhere?
In fact, I predict they'll start depending on it before it's reliable. The test will go away, and for better or for worse, there will be a lot more cabbies out there, and they won't be able to get around very well when the computer acts up, just like a lot of businesses now can barely sell anything when their cash registers act up. It will be a pain to get to certain streets because the database is wrong, and cabbies will unknowingly avoid certain more optimal turns/intersections because the software can't navigate through them.
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Re:Cause or Effect? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Cause or Effect? (Score:4, Interesting)
I was in a motorcycle accident in 2001 which caused serious short-term memory issues in my brain. I started driving a cab in february of 2006, and I have noticed an increase in my short term memory.
When I first started, I would have to ask my passengers to give me directions one turn at a time (and in my mind, I was repeating that single direction) in order to get to the destination. Now, I can generally get anywhere on address alone, or, at a minimum, remember the address all the way through the trip, despite having various conversations, remembering turn by turn directions, avoiding accidents, etc.
I'd say I agree with the studies, from personal experience.
Re:Like every other muscle (Score:5, Insightful)
My mother used to be fluent in French, being a translator. She hasn't used the language in 20 years. She has almost forgotten it completely as she can't make sentences so easily. (Though I am sure she can get back into it 100x faster than a newcomer).
It is almost like the brain is a muscle. After Terry Shiavo died, the autopsy found that her brain shrunk to the size of grapefruit.
I wonder if there is a correlation of speed of learning and speed of forgetting and the brains that "erase" (or shove aside) old info faster take in new information easier.
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It presents no problem on my computers (Ubuntu, Mac OSX, Windows XP) as they all can switch your layout in software. The worst operating system with this is actually Micr
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What about trivia nuts? (Score:4, Interesting)
What about people who memorize every little detail of Star Trek?
Or is it that only people with the additional brain mass CAN memorize all those items?
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Re:What about trivia nuts? (Score:4, Insightful)
Trust me, memorization has very little to do with intelligence and more to do with exposure and motivation to memorize a subject
I honestly don't think it should be a surprise that working with an area of your brain would increase its "strength." This is (effectively) what practice is
Take any person who has never learned a musical instrument before and examine the impact of musical stimulus on their brain. Spend 8 hours a day for the next year teaching them musical theory and composition as well as several instruments and then examine the impact of musical stimulus on their brain. Being that they've practiced and learned a lot about music, one would expect that their brain would suddenly become far more involved in the musical experience.
At the same time, one of the questions of a study like this would be what would the consequence of television be on a person's brain? For the most part television would be training the brain in a way which would not be particularly useful in any pursuit and yet many/most people have a ton of exposure to this influence.
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No surprise, yes, but often overlooked or disregarded. There have been studies on the brains of older folks and Alzheimer patients that have shown that people who make an effort to be stimulate their brains in later life (by reading, taking classes, learning music, etc.) tend to fare better than their counterparts. I wonder why it is that when people
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TV is mostly entertainment. So its really not that different than me driving my ass to the comedy clubs downtown. I'm "engaged" in the same way, yet we dont see so much PC hysteria about this or other forms of entertainment. Well, we do with videogames, but again its a double standard depending on who is com
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They just forgot to train their Social skills (Score:2)
Spatial aspect is important (Score:3, Informative)
The original idea was that the hippocampus holds a map of spatial environments, and so if someone has a very large amount of spatial knowledge, maybe their hippocampal anatomy will reflect that. This hypothesis is supported
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Bones: Dammit Jim. I'm a doctor, not a cab driver!
How do they know? (Score:2)
Did these scientists have a "control experiment" done? The very usage of the word "believe" scares me. That means that there could be another scientist who might *not* believe.
May be those brain cells grow because of the working environment these taxi drivers find themselves in. In this case, they see so much traffic in their particular work day - maybe.
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Re:How do they know? (Score:5, Insightful)
Welcome to the real world of science, where conclusions are not solid, facts are not certain, and evidence is only an indication.
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In the study, researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL's Institute of Neurology carried out scans on the brains of 35 cabbies and bus drivers, all men. Various psychological tests were also carried out. Using bus drivers meant that any brain differences found could not be explained by driving stress, or dealing with passengers and traffic in London. The one big difference between the two is that bus drivers stick to routes, while cabbies have to learn the layout of streets and the locations of thousands of places of interest to get an operating licence.
So clearly they had thought of that particular possibility. What concerns me though, is how they know that their brain matter has grown rather than just having large memory centers from the start. They should probably do the same experiment with cabbies preparing for their exam and take the measure before and after.
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London cabbies... (Score:5, Informative)
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In the UK ten+ streets in the same area can all take the same first name and vary only on the ending (as you noticed), or be completely randomly named. To stop people learning the names the signs are hidden instead of placed somewhere obvious and illuminated.
In the UK this means that (1) nobody knows where the road
london streets (Score:3, Informative)
London is also harder to get around, due to the way street names in London work.
Re:london streets (Score:5, Insightful)
I am a Londoner, and I think the sooner the GPS makes The Knowledge a prerequisite of licenced cab driving irrelevant, the better. The times I've been to NYC and got a cab it's been paradise in comparison.
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Which is precisely the point a (fairly disturbing) Transport for London cinema ad made a few months back. Bit OTT, sure, but I guess in one way or another entirely necessary.
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The unlicensed ones aren't exactly cheap either, in my experience. Still, I live far enough out (Zone 6 on the District Line) that them not having any idea how to get back to the centre of London is revenge enough for me on those thankfully rare occasions that I have to get a cab home.
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So the problem is not that London regulates its black cabs. The problem is that it doesn't regulate the minicabs.
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They know where the traffic jams are at different times of day, and how to avoid them. They know about road works, about avoiding the football statiums on match days and about all the other factors that can affect journey times. Getting GPS systems to take all that into account is very difficult, impossible almost.
Nonsense. Traffic patterns, sports events, and road work can all be factored in simply by linking the GPS unit up to a server. Surely the traffic patterns are known, and the sports events and road work are scheduled? Once you have that data, it's easy to make a GPS navigator route around the problem areas.
A GPS system cannot replace a decent cabbie, and getting rid of the Knowledge requirement would punish the best drivers.
It can, however, replace 95% of what a decent cabbie does, and for the other 5%, there's nothing to stop the best drivers from ignoring the GPS's suggestions when they know better.
If someone can't be bothered to do the Knowledge then I don't want them driving me home.
How about this: everyo
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That said, I have no problem with recent immigrants who are able to obtain the requisite licenses to become cab drivers doing so. In the course of their jobs they learn their way around the city they moved to very well and they get to know a good cross-section of the culture they will hopefully one day assimilate into, either as a crouton in the sal
Old news for nerds? (Score:5, Informative)
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The taxi drivers have a 20% reduction in anterior hippocampus. And
a 7-8% increase in posterior hippocampus.
Therefore the brain grows from experience!
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/97/8/4398/F2 [pnas.org]
Then they went on to show a correlation with time as a taxi driver,
but it was only significant if they removed one outlier, a process
that COULD NOT POSSIBLY HAVE BEEN important to their statistical
finding.
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/97/8/4398 [pnas.org]
That part of the brain h
Unlike American cab drivers .... (Score:2)
I once had this cab driver who picked me up from Fairbanks International and didn't know the way to Ester.* He was actually angry at me for "wasting his time" and wanted me to call 911 for directions and eventually dropped me back off the airport and wanted $25 for his trouble. (!)
*Ester is a little village a few miles from Fairbanks on a major road that anyone of speaking age who's lived in town for more than a month can give you directions to. I know w
My brane is huge (Score:2, Funny)
In other news... (Score:2)
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Arms and legs have nothin' to do,
some machine be doin' it for you.
Apparently this applies to our brains as well as our limbs.
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Does this mean... (Score:4, Interesting)
Butlerian Jihad? (Score:2)
So we shouldn't use technology because it interferes with their study? Or maybe they just think that somehow humanity will become smarter and more efficient as adults make new brain cells specific to a task? Darwinian natural selection issues aside, it sounds like something straight out of Frank Herbert's series.
Does this apply only to "brain" mass ? (Score:2, Insightful)
So, Construction Workers shouldn't use heavy equipment because it could effect their muscle
Wrong brain cell, doofus! (Score:2)
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It's true (Score:3, Funny)
Plato/Socrates said that about writing too... (Score:5, Interesting)
Bet he would have hated Google. All we have to remember now is how to use it and a few key words.
London cabbies vs American cabbies (Score:4, Insightful)
No map required, took us directly to the street - no problems - good tip
American cab driver (picked me up from Dallas Fort Worth airport)
Said he "used to live there", had a map - was only 6 miles from the airport but he managed to get lost, take about an hour or two to get there (had this insistence he must drop me off at the correct number) and ended up charging less than what was on his meter out of embarrassment.
So, yes I'll take a London cab driver (or walking/public transport if I'm in America) vs their American equivalent any day of the week.
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Anyway, as long as we're on anecdotes, when I was in Japan, I asked the cab driver to take me to a well-known club, even using what Japanese I knew, plus a Japanese accent with my English (which actually works better than trying to speak Japanese in many situations). Apparently the language barrier was too steep, so I just showed him the flier with the map all written in Japanese. Instead of
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Of course the system of laying them out and naming them is only known to the madman that created them. Finding your way around on the English roadways is definitely a skill based on good memory and a lot of experience (getting lost a dozen times).
"Street signs telling you what road you are on, st
Sounds like a good reason *for* GPS (Score:3, Insightful)
London Cabbies... (Score:2)
Because all American cities are laid out in square grids of exact size and cabbies drive from one end to the other in a continuous loop like little yellow trains.
Yes, yes, I know London is complicated, but come on now.
Use a GPS. Save your brain for something better. (Score:5, Insightful)
American Scientist had an episode where they taught a seeing girl braille, and tested her ability while doing an fMRI. The sections of her brain that fired during the test were associated with tactile processing. Then they blindfolded her for 100 hours, and retested. This time, her visual cortex was firing. The brain is dynamic and can repurpose unused neurons. This may be why people can no longer remember 7-digit telephone numbers: We all have PDA/cell phones to do it for us.
Is this bad? Not unless you value the ability to remember phone numbers.
Would it be bad if London taxi drivers no longer knew every little alleyway? Not so long as they could still accomplish their task.
BTW, I had a very different experience with a cabby in Paris. I told him where I wanted to go and he handed me a road atlas and said, "Trouvez-le."
Old News (Score:2)
use of gps, etc. (Score:2)
Writing Destroys Memory (Score:3, Interesting)
May not be more brain cells (Score:2)
In other news... (Score:3, Interesting)
Med-I-Cal, Inc. has filed a patent on a revolutionary new method of improving muslce tone. From an interview with company CEO Mr. Smith:
"After long and expensive testing, we have found that repeatedly lifting heavy objects for as little as 15 minutes each day causes muscle mass in adults to increase and the amount of body fat to decrease without any of the side effects our current line of hormonal products may, under extremely rare circumstances and with no liability to us, show. We are seeking to bring such objects with an easy to grip handle into the market within the next 10 years."
Mr. Smith also stated that the makers of many piratical weightlifting products currently flooding the market would face "heavy consequences" and proceeded to pick up and throw a car towards a 3rd-story window in a fit of hormone-induced rage. Luckily a passing taxi driver was able to stop the car in midflight and bring it down safely with his amazing psychokinetic powers, the result of strenuously exercising his brain for years beyond human limits.
Mr. Smith and the taxi driver then engaged in a superpowered fight that reduced most of downtown into smoking rubble. The fight ended in a draw when the smoke caused the combatants to lose sight of each other and wander off. The taxi drivers union settled out of court to use their mind powers to restore the city, heal the injured and raise the dead, a task that took them approximately 15 minutes. Mr. Smith, being the head of a large corporation, was not accused despite having started the fight.
Juggers too - BBC again (Score:3, Interesting)
It's interesting, but it ain't news
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Not D.C. (Score:2)
And grid cities can still be confus
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Where the streets have TOO MANY names. (Score:5, Insightful)
By contrast, Washington, DC was carefully planned, with a Cartesian quadrant system of N/S and E/W 'Streets' numbered from the Capitol building, as well as 'Avenues' that run at odd angles to that grid. The Public Land Survey System, which was used for the territories gained/defined after the US became independent of Britain, imposes a compass grid that largely governs newer areas, such as Florida and Western states.
It is often said that St. Louis (built long before the survey system) is the westernmost 'eastern' city, and Kansas City the easternmost 'western' city. A comparison of the two shows that the former indeed has virtually no streets that align with the compass, while the latter has most major roads aligned with the survey grids, right down to the streets across the state line not being quite exactly aligned (due to accumulated errors over the distances from the 5th and 6th Principal Meridians, from which the surveys were conducted).The reason why London cabbies have to learn so many different street names is because there's so damned many of them, and no particular scheme to tie them together.
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I think the president has less to do with the economy (but not nothing). Also, I think our economic problems are only starting to emerge; but they go back further than that. Alan Greenspan is said to have had a very close relationship with Bill Clinton. Some have argued that he was reluctant to prick the dot-com bubble and create a potential recession under Clinton--he should have raised rates much earlier. The fake wealth created by dot-com I found its way into the real estate market. Interest rates t
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Only if you believe he was in charge of the conspiracy.
If Bush is the conspirator's puppet (which seems pretty damn likely) then it means that he is exactly as dumb as most people suspect.
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Karl Rove did the managing. (Score:2)
Agreed. But George W. Bush did not do the managing, Karl Rove did. GWB merely followed Karl Rove's script.
I wrote a summary of the corruption of the Rove/Cheney/Rumsfeld administration: George W. Bush comedy and tragedy [futurepower.org].
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Exactly. The truth is, he is actually quite an intelligent and eloquent man off camera, but for one reason or another, he doesn't let the rest of the world know. The truth is, he's manipulated the lower and middle voting classes like no other president has before him, undoubtedly because he's excellent at acting dumb. Ronald Regan was known as the actor-president, but GWB is a much better actor--yet he hasn't been in a single film. Heck, i
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Re:So how does this explain George Bush ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sometimes vice-presidents are chosen for their intelligence, which I believe is a ploy to keep them from competing for the top spot.
*("I think you're guilty of putting Descartes before TerHorst")
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Well then, from a military perspective, the terrorists who brought down the Twins were also very successful and did a reasonably casualty-free job.
If you're saying that it has been anything except for successful
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The terrorists were remarkably successful in their objective; they destroyed their target, made Americans fear terrorism and (if it weren't for quick thinking by the American fed) almost caused a massive crash in the American ecconomy. As far as civilian casualties (about 5,000 wasn't it) they were really not that bad in the grand scheme of things; just considering my 100,000 single attack in the tokyo fire bombing.
What?
You expected a different response?
That's right, as I said earlier I'
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Just as long as we understand each other.
Cheers.
(I'm not American either. And the only reason I posted that was to switch the rhetoric.)
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Honestly, I don't think that Iraq is stable (and think it may take a decade before Iraq becomes truly stable) but I think that the instability in Iraq is largely overstated. In my opinion, the US Military can not do anything to increase stability in Iraq at this point. T
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No doubt British Taxis are better than French & Egyptian taxis as well but since most people who read this are American it makes more sense to point out how much better they are than Americans rather than some other random country.
It's not jingoism when it's true... (Score:4, Interesting)
Compare this to my experiences in the USA:
- Wanting to get back to my hotel in Sausalito from San Francisco. I'm standing on Lombard (which turns into the Golden gate bridge, the best way to go) and hail a cab. He turns (right) onto a side-street, turns left, turns left, crosses Lombard again, turns right, turns right, crosses Lombard again, etc. He's being told how to get to Sausalito by his controller (I can *hear* his controller saying "turn onto Lombard" at which point he says "I've just crossed Lombard"). This goes on until I lean over and tell him I can direct him.
- Getting off a plane at Newark, having the rest of the day free before a plane home to the UK the next day. Ask cabbie to take me to the Empire State building - hell why not. He doesn't know where it is. I direct him to roughly the right area, and he says "this is as close as I can get". WTF ? Walking about 8 blocks (diagonally) I get to the ESB...
I could go on. In my experience, cabbies in London are top-notch. The only place I've found that has vaguely-similar cabbies is Las Vegas, and I've travelled a fair amount in the US.
Simon.
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Mini cab drivers do not have to take the Knowledge but if you ask them they are mostly studying to pass it, this can take up to 2 or 3 years of study even whilst operating as a mini cab in that time.
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For example the road I live on has a name which is repeated a number of times in the City I live in in different areas but with Black Cabs I only have to say "[my road name] by the park just under the bridge" to get there with no further questions asked whereas with the mini cabs it can t
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Then again, I had a cab driver ask me once (I was walking on the sidewalk) where a certain hotel in town was. Even if I would have known, I think I wouldn't have
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