> In one landmark 2000 study, neuroscientists compared the brains of licensed London taxi drivers with those of people who did not drive cabs.<p>Location is very important here. London cabbies have to pass The Knowledge which is an extremely difficult memory exam that only people with particular kind of brain can do.
Indeed. Elsewhere in the world taxi drivers just follow the GPS.
We had taxis long before GPS.<p>When I was in my early 20s I had a job delivering pizza. I very quickly learned the delivery area, I knew pretty much every street and alleyway and shortcut to get from one place to another. Much smaller than London but I think the human brain is very good at remembering routes and where things are in an area, as this would have been an evolutionary advantage (go out hunting and be able to find your way back). No GPS, didn't even carry a map with me. We had a large map on the wall at the store, and if I had to deliver to a street I didn't recognize I'd find it on the map, see where it was relative to the streets I did know, and then I never had any problem finding places.
Same. First thing they had me buy was a map book with all the local neighborhoods. The map on the wall helped get shortcuts from others. This is where I learned the difference between the different kinds of shortcuts. Some saved time, others distance, and some even potholes. It was a fun time.
People with a particular kind of brain, or with a particular kind of mind? Think about it.
The ones that do stopped being taxi drivers.
Yeah, that was the first thing that comes to mind.<p>And the second thing: What about modern taxi drivers that rely almost exclusively on GPS?
I would assume that the task of being a taxi driver would act as a near constant test for Alzheimer’s, would be interesting to do GWAS studies on older taxi drivers and compare against taxi drivers who quit earlier in their careers.
Something with more data:<p><a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3920458/" rel="nofollow">https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3920458/</a>
Seems strange to me that a specific type of thinking could influence something where most causes being investigated are physical
[delayed]
Not strange when you realize thinking is also physical.
Perhaps specific types of thinking cause somewhat sustained brain activity during waking hours that mitigates adverse physical changes leading to Alzheimer’s.<p>The opposite of this is how sleep and unconsciousness allows the brain to perform cerebrospinal fluid transfer based maintenance routines via the glymphatic system, and why sleep is important to neural health.<p><a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-uncover-how-brain-washes-itself-during-sleep" rel="nofollow">https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-uncover-h...</a>
My grandfather was a taxi driver and delivery driver for many years. He made it to 93 and I don't recall him dealing with any cognitive decline. He used to tell me different routes to get to a stadium that was closed before I was even born.
Guys... Alzheimer's is 60-80% heritable, and driven largely by APOE genotype. No, you cannot get out of it with One Quick Trick. We have to find therapeutics to make real progress here.<p>This kind of misdirection is not helpful to the research community, or encouraging politicians to fund effective projects. Everyone WANTS a quick lifestyle change and will latch onto these things, but this is a real biological disease that needs real molecular fixes. Sorry, it's just how it is.
Half of people with Alzheimer's carry at least one APOE ε4 allele. <i>However</i>, a full quarter of the population carries that mutation, and many never go on to develop Alzheimer's. Lifestyle matters a lot here.<p>This kind of misdirection is not helpful for educating people on changes they can make <i>now</i> to reduce their risk, rather than waiting for a silver bullet. Alzheimer's research is well-funded in the US as the octogenarians running our congress are personally invested in it.
Taxi driver also live shorter lives than average, which would fit with lower levels of alzheimers. But interesting link nonetheless.
Can video games provide similar benefits?
The thing about taxi drivers is that they have something at stake, while video games have no fail state effectively. You can be punished in-game, but overall it does not matter.<p>Also video games in general are pretty derivative, so playing the same genre probably won't help much after a certain point. But playing different ones can be very helpful, I imagine (same with other mediums).
I’m sure Crazy Taxi provides the same benefits! :)