{"id":4095,"date":"2017-03-30T10:48:34","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T14:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=4095"},"modified":"2017-03-30T10:48:34","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T14:48:34","slug":"satnavs-and-switching-off-the-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/03\/satnavs-and-switching-off-the-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Satnavs and ‘Switching Off’ the Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"

More on the impact of GPS on our cognitive function.\u00a0A new study<\/a> identifies brain activity in the hippocampus and prefrontal lobes while navigating city streets\u2014areas of the brain involving memory, planning and decision-making. There was no additional brain activity from the control group (using satnavs). The\u00a0University College London news release<\/a>\u00a0on the study suggests that using a satnav “switches off” those parts of the brain, but it may be more fair to say that it fails to switch them on.<\/p>\n

It’s hardly\u00a0groundbreaking news to suggest that not having to think about where you’re going results in less\u00a0activity in the areas of the brain that involve remembering things and deciding what to do next, but experimental research does need\u00a0to establish such things. [The Truth About Cars<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More on the impact of GPS on our cognitive function.\u00a0A new study identifies brain activity in the hippocampus and prefrontal lobes while navigating city streets\u2014areas of the brain involving memory, planning and decision-making. There was… 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":[254],"tags":[314],"class_list":["post-4095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-gps","tag-cognitive-mapping","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1808285,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/07\/gps-negatively-impacts-spatial-memory\/","url_meta":{"origin":4095,"position":0},"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":969,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/02\/could-societys-embrace-of-gps-be-eroding-our-cognitive-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":4095,"position":1},"title":"‘Could Society\u2019s Embrace of GPS Be Eroding Our Cognitive Maps?’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"21 February 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Earlier this month in the\u00a0New York Times, Greg Milner looked at something that was a frequent subject during The Map Room\u2019s first life: people getting themselves lost by blindly following their GPS\u00a0units (or satnavs, as the British call them). Could society\u2019s embrace of GPS be eroding our cognitive maps? For\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GPS"","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"pinpoint","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/pinpoint-99x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1787422,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/06\/wayfinding-a-new-book-about-the-neuroscience-of-navigation\/","url_meta":{"origin":4095,"position":2},"title":"Wayfinding: A New Book about the Neuroscience of Navigation","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"10 June 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"M. R. O'Connor's book Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World came out in April from St. Martin's Press. Not coincidentally, she's published a couple of pieces on the subject of that book, both of which focus on humans' ability to pay attention to their surroundings,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GPS"","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/9781250096968-194x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5568,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/02\/all-online-maps-suck\/","url_meta":{"origin":4095,"position":3},"title":"All Online Maps Suck","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 February 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is something I've been meaning to write for a while. I should have written it last December, during the hullaballoo over Apple's maps, but I've never been one to strike when the iron is hot. You'll recall that there were a lot of complaints about Apple's maps app when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Map Errors"","block_context":{"text":"Map Errors","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/map-errors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1786428,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/10\/are-people-with-a-good-sense-of-smell-better-navigators\/","url_meta":{"origin":4095,"position":4},"title":"Are People with a Good Sense of Smell Better Navigators?","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 October 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"A recent study suggests that there's a link between a good sense of smell and a good sense of direction, with the same brain areas being implicated in both abilities. As someone who has difficulty getting lost who also has a precise sense of smell, I resemble this study, which\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":1787444,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/06\/the-economic-impact-of-gps-and-gps-outages\/","url_meta":{"origin":4095,"position":5},"title":"The Economic Impact of GPS\u2014and GPS Outages","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"20 June 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"A new study quantifies the economic benefits of GPS: in the U.S. alone, it estimates around $1.4 trillion in economic activity resulting from private-sector GPS use, about half of that coming from improvements in the telecommunications sector. (Roughly a quarter came from the telematics sector, and 15 percent from location-based\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Aviation"","block_context":{"text":"Aviation","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/aviation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/faa-gps-outage-300x148.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4095","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=4095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4097,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4095\/revisions\/4097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}