Can I survive for 24 hours without GPS navigation?
by Zoe Williams from on (#6T2YS)
Spatial memory is a use-it-or-lose it commodity, so I gave life without Google Maps a try
Taxi and ambulance drivers are less likely than other workers to die of Alzheimer's disease, according to a Harvard study published in the British Medical Journal.
On the one hand, it makes total sense, navigation and spatial memory belonging in the hippocampus, which is the first region of the brain the disease atrophies. On the other hand, life expectancy is significantly lower than average in both jobs - 68 and 64 respectively - and Alzheimer's typically afflicts those over 65.
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