{"id":1835420,"date":"2024-12-19T10:31:52","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T15:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1835420"},"modified":"2024-12-19T10:31:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T15:31:53","slug":"jobs-requiring-spatial-memory-and-navigation-associated-with-low-alzheimers-mortality-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/12\/jobs-requiring-spatial-memory-and-navigation-associated-with-low-alzheimers-mortality-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Jobs Requiring Spatial Memory and Navigation Associated with Low Alzheimer\u2019s Mortality Rates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A population-based study suggesting that people in jobs that require real-time spatial processing\u2014taxi and ambulance drivers\u2014have the lowest rate of Alzheimer\u2019s-related death<\/a> comes with a bunch of caveats and is reluctant to draw a direct correlation. Per Euronews<\/em><\/a>, people good at spatial processing may be at lower risk regardless of whether they use that skill driving ambulances and taxis. Also:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Independent researchers pointed to a few of those factors, including the fact that the taxi and ambulance drivers in the study died on average around ages 64 to 67, while Alzheimer\u2019s onset is typically after age 65.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, few of the drivers were women, who are more likely to develop Alzheimer\u2019s than men, and the analysis didn\u2019t consider genetics or include scans that could show any changes to the brain as a result of their jobs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So this is a long, long<\/em> way from being able to say, for example, that driving a taxi prevents Alzheimer\u2019s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously: London Cabbies\u2019 Unique Brains May Help Alzheimer\u2019s Diagnosis<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A population-based study suggesting that people in jobs that require real-time spatial processing\u2014taxi and ambulance drivers\u2014have the lowest rate of Alzheimer\u2019s-related death comes with a bunch of caveats and is reluctant to draw a direct… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[155,752],"tags":[1710,1711,753],"class_list":["post-1835420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-health","category-navigation","tag-alzheimers","tag-dementia","tag-spatial-ability","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1805360,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/11\/london-cabbies-unique-brains-may-help-alzheimers-diagnosis\/","url_meta":{"origin":1835420,"position":0},"title":"London Cabbies\u2019 Unique Brains May Help Alzheimer\u2019s Diagnosis","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"8 November 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"The Taxi Brains Project explores whether London taxi drivers\u2019 legendary ability to navigate could help diagnose dementia. London cabbies, who since 1865 start by spending three or four years memorizing the London road network in order to learn the Knowledge, have been found to have an enlarged hippocampus, the part\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Navigation"","block_context":{"text":"Navigation","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/navigation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1808285,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/07\/gps-negatively-impacts-spatial-memory\/","url_meta":{"origin":1835420,"position":1},"title":"GPS Negatively Impacts Spatial Memory","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 July 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"Rebecca Solnit points to a 2020 study that attempts to measure the impact of using GPS navigation devices on our spatial memory. After assessing 50 drivers, researchers found that drivers with more GPS experience had worse spatial memory when navigating without GPS. But more significantly, it\u2019s a longitudinal study: 13\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GPS"","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3758,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/01\/gender-differences-in-spatial-ability-are-a-social-construct\/","url_meta":{"origin":1835420,"position":2},"title":"Gender Differences in Spatial Ability Are a Social Construct","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 January 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"A recent psychology paper challenges the notion that men are better than women at directions. When the same test was presented as a\u00a0measure of spatial ability that women typically did worse at, women did worse than men. But when the same test\u00a0was presented as a measure of empathy, women did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Navigation"","block_context":{"text":"Navigation","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/navigation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1834078,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/09\/new-leventhal-exhibition-processing-place\/","url_meta":{"origin":1835420,"position":3},"title":"New Leventhal Exhibition: Processing Place","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"16 September 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"An exhibition exploring the history of computerized mapping, GIS and remote sensing opened at the Boston Public Library\u2019s Leventhal Map Center last Friday. Processing Place: How Computers and Cartographers Redrew our World runs until March 2025. In the long history of mapmaking, computers are a relatively new development. In some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1840823,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/05\/noaa-cuts-threaten-spatial-reference-system-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":1835420,"position":4},"title":"NOAA Cuts Threaten Spatial Reference System Update","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"21 May 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"Wired reports that Trump administration cuts to NOAA are threatening an already-delayed update to the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS), which was supposed to replace NAD 83 and NAVD 88 in 2022 with corrected spatial measurements more in line with satellite data. (See this 2020 post on the difference in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Surveying"","block_context":{"text":"Surveying","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/surveying\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2427,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/07\/after-the-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":1835420,"position":5},"title":"After the Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 July 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"William Rankin's\u00a0After the Map: Cartography, Navigation, and the Transformation of Territory in the Twentieth Century is out this month from the University of Chicago Press\u00a0(Amazon,\u00a0iBooks).\u00a0The book's website explains in depth what it's about, and makes\u00a0all the book's illustrations\u00a0and data available for free download.\u00a0[GIS Lounge] This book can be read at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"after-the-map","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/after-the-map-209x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1835420"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1835425,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835420\/revisions\/1835425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1835420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1835420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1835420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}