Oh no! GPS is eroding our brains!
11-15-2010, 12:37 PM
#1
Oh no! GPS is eroding our brains!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40138522...mental_health/
From MSNBC.
I didn't even know I had a hippocampus - much less that it is being eroded by using GPS.
From MSNBC.
I didn't even know I had a hippocampus - much less that it is being eroded by using GPS.
11-15-2010, 01:51 PM
#2
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2016 GLE 4MATIC
Hippocampus is a tiny part of brain that is involved in emotions, cognition, 'spatial' memory, etc. In computer terms, its like the RAM of the brain. Before being stored as long term memory, everything has to go thru hippocampus for short term processing before being stored. People with damaged hippocampus (stroke, etc) have intact long term memory but cannot recall what they had for lunch today.
Navigation has to do with 'visio-spatial' cognition. Learning in context of environment. When you go to work every day, you rely on visial cues to navigate you. 'Right on Shell, left at Starbucks, park at that brown brick building...Your GPS will get you to your work, but without much work from the brain - which may not stimulate your hippocampus much. Anything that is not used much may shrink. Normal aging does that too.
The good news is that, your hippocampus is not going to die just by relying on your GPS. There are so many other ways to stimulate it. Try Sudoku. Chess, maybe? Play basketball.
Hey, off topic (MB), but thought I'd throw my 2 cents.
Navigation has to do with 'visio-spatial' cognition. Learning in context of environment. When you go to work every day, you rely on visial cues to navigate you. 'Right on Shell, left at Starbucks, park at that brown brick building...Your GPS will get you to your work, but without much work from the brain - which may not stimulate your hippocampus much. Anything that is not used much may shrink. Normal aging does that too.
The good news is that, your hippocampus is not going to die just by relying on your GPS. There are so many other ways to stimulate it. Try Sudoku. Chess, maybe? Play basketball.
Hey, off topic (MB), but thought I'd throw my 2 cents.
11-15-2010, 04:35 PM
#4
Super Member
I always said, when I travel, if my GPS quits working I'm hosed and won't be able to make it back home. Driving anymore requires no thought, so when I go somehwere, I have really no idea how I got there if someone were to ask me. 
11-16-2010, 10:07 AM
#6
Hippocampus is a tiny part of brain that is involved in emotions, cognition, 'spatial' memory, etc. In computer terms, its like the RAM of the brain. Before being stored as long term memory, everything has to go thru hippocampus for short term processing before being stored. People with damaged hippocampus (stroke, etc) have intact long term memory but cannot recall what they had for lunch today.
Navigation has to do with 'visio-spatial' cognition. Learning in context of environment. When you go to work every day, you rely on visial cues to navigate you. 'Right on Shell, left at Starbucks, park at that brown brick building...Your GPS will get you to your work, but without much work from the brain - which may not stimulate your hippocampus much. Anything that is not used much may shrink. Normal aging does that too.
The good news is that, your hippocampus is not going to die just by relying on your GPS. There are so many other ways to stimulate it. Try Sudoku. Chess, maybe? Play basketball.
Hey, off topic (MB), but thought I'd throw my 2 cents.
Navigation has to do with 'visio-spatial' cognition. Learning in context of environment. When you go to work every day, you rely on visial cues to navigate you. 'Right on Shell, left at Starbucks, park at that brown brick building...Your GPS will get you to your work, but without much work from the brain - which may not stimulate your hippocampus much. Anything that is not used much may shrink. Normal aging does that too.
The good news is that, your hippocampus is not going to die just by relying on your GPS. There are so many other ways to stimulate it. Try Sudoku. Chess, maybe? Play basketball.
Hey, off topic (MB), but thought I'd throw my 2 cents.
