Surprising Science — November 20, 2010

G.P.S. Is Rotting Your Brain

As reassuring as that G.P.S. voice can be, you may want to turn it off next time you’re trying to find your way. It may be dumbing down a region of your brain.

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Veronique Bohbot, an assistant professor of psychiatry, and colleagues at McGill Univeristy released three studies on the effect G.P.S. has on the human brain. Their results showed that avid G.P.S. users have a higher risk of suffering from memory and spatial orientation problems. The research focused on how humans navigate. … The study found that younger respondents relied more on the spatial navigation technique to find their way around a virtual maze. Older participants favored the G.P.S.-like stimulus-response method.

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