Maintaining brain health is a hot topic particularly as we age. Today, more than ever before we want and expect to be able to enjoy every facet of our longer lives. We want to stave off the ravages of aging in our brains and bodies - but we are also looking for lifestyle and ease. It is human nature after all.
Don't you just love all the gadgets we can get to enhance our lifestyle? Make our lives easier and fuller?
Talking books - so we don't have to read.
Calculators - so we can do complicated math.
GPS navigation systems - so we don't have to navigate or remember where to turn.
But could these lifestyle enhancing gadgets actually be setting us up for brain health problems in the future?
Take a look at the GPS as an example. Back in the late 90's there was a study at the University College London where they scanned the brains of 16 London Cabbies.
London Cab drivers have to pass "The Knowledge" before they get their license. The cabbies have to be able to remember vast numbers of roads and routes in their heads. Information is accessed on the fly and in the process utilizes high level spatial memory skills.
The research showed that the cabbies had a larger than average hippocampus area of the brain. In birds and animals, the hippocampus had been shown to be involved in navigation. The conclusion drawn by the researchers was that the cabbies' hippocampus had grown larger because they were continually memorizing and planning out routes in their heads.
The big question is: Could the use of items such as calculators and car navigational GPS systems actually make us all more prone to memory loss and brain function degradation as we age?
GPS is a useful aid but it is making us rely upon a computer, rather than using and exercising our own incredible inbuilt computer. Calculators and computers make it easy for us to avoid doing mental arithmetic. Have you experienced that feeling of fear when you realized your calculator batteries had gone flat? It is a stark reminder that our brain does lose function and speed and we know it!
We are probably a bit more aware of what calculators do to our mental arithmetic skills and speed, but will the GPS creep up on us?
Perhaps if we do choose to use a GPS to make our navigation of unfamiliar places easier, we should also make sure we compensate by having a regular program of brain training exercises.
Maybe the marketers could jump on the bandwagon with a cross promotion! All GPS could come with Brain Training Programs! Or maybe in the future we might see health warnings like this: "Warning: GPS systems could seriously damage your brain health".
Getting back to those cabbies - I seem to remember that cabbies did well in quiz shows too! Perhaps the introduction of GPS will bring an end to that and give the rest of us a chance!
In the meantime - try some structured brain training to maintain your brain health as you age....
Hope Wynns is a freelance writer who contributes to the Brain Training Blog at http://www.naturalbrainpower.com Hope has an interest in personally keeping her brain fit and active and is constantly researching practical ways to do that whilst fitting in with a hectic lifestyle.
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