“Taxi and ambulance drivers are less likely than workers in almost any other job to die of Alzheimer’s disease.” The key difference: “the constant work of locating yourself in space, tracking a destination and updating a mental map as conditions change.”
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Comments 1
Probably harder to test, but another activity that potentially boosts the same brain pathways would be travel to novel locations.
Paris is my favorite example: No matter what journey I was on by foot, I'd constantly orient to key landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, Montparnasse Tower, or Sacre Cour, depending on where I am in the city. Being there as a traveler and seeking out numerous novel destinations means none of the paths were really repeated; constant wayfinding, correcting, learning, and improvising. With croissants as a reward.
And of course it's felt the same in other destinations.
If anyone is offering a grant to compare this study's results with the brains of those who travel, I'm willing to be a test subject. Just pay me in croissants and I'll sign anything you want.
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