Taxi drivers are infamous for their obstinate view of life, but a new study shows their brains could have become hard-wired to prevent them from taking on new information.
Cabbies who acquire the knowledge, a stern test involving in-depth mastery of London's streets, suffer changes to their brains that could make them blinkered, research has shown.
Those who pass the test develop more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus, the part of the brain they use to recall a mental map and calculate the shortest route from A to B.
But this comes at a price because the tens of thousands of streets and landmarks they need to remember fill up their brain to its maximum capacity, researchers said.
This only applies to the hippocampus, which is concerned with memory and spatial navigation, but it backs up previous research which shows taxi drivers struggle more than most drivers to adapt to changes in the road network or to driving in unfamiliar cities.
Dr Katherine Woollett, one of the co-authors of the study from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London, said: The posterior hippocampus is at its full capacity, it cannot incorporate any more of this same type of knowledge because it is full.
The study, published in the Current Biology journal, followed 79 trainee taxi drivers as they undertook the four years of training required to pass the knowledge, as well as 31 controls.
All had a similar brain structure at the starting point, but by the end of the study the 39 trainees who passed the test were found to have undergone physical changes which were absent in those that failed.
Prof Eleanor Maguire, who led the research, said: What is not clear is whether those trainees who became fully-fledged taxi drivers had some biological advantage over those who failed.
Could it be, for example, that they have a genetic predisposition towards having a more adaptable, ââ¬Ëplasticââ¬â¢ brain? In other words, the perennial question of ââ¬Ënature versus nurtureââ¬â¢ is still open.ââ¬Â
The findings add to the belief that adult brains remain malleable and can change with learning, offering the hope of rehabilitation for brain damage victims.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...-drivers-brains-rewired-by-The-Knowledge.html
Cabbies who acquire the knowledge, a stern test involving in-depth mastery of London's streets, suffer changes to their brains that could make them blinkered, research has shown.
Those who pass the test develop more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus, the part of the brain they use to recall a mental map and calculate the shortest route from A to B.
But this comes at a price because the tens of thousands of streets and landmarks they need to remember fill up their brain to its maximum capacity, researchers said.
This only applies to the hippocampus, which is concerned with memory and spatial navigation, but it backs up previous research which shows taxi drivers struggle more than most drivers to adapt to changes in the road network or to driving in unfamiliar cities.
Dr Katherine Woollett, one of the co-authors of the study from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London, said: The posterior hippocampus is at its full capacity, it cannot incorporate any more of this same type of knowledge because it is full.
The study, published in the Current Biology journal, followed 79 trainee taxi drivers as they undertook the four years of training required to pass the knowledge, as well as 31 controls.
All had a similar brain structure at the starting point, but by the end of the study the 39 trainees who passed the test were found to have undergone physical changes which were absent in those that failed.
Prof Eleanor Maguire, who led the research, said: What is not clear is whether those trainees who became fully-fledged taxi drivers had some biological advantage over those who failed.
Could it be, for example, that they have a genetic predisposition towards having a more adaptable, ââ¬Ëplasticââ¬â¢ brain? In other words, the perennial question of ââ¬Ënature versus nurtureââ¬â¢ is still open.ââ¬Â
The findings add to the belief that adult brains remain malleable and can change with learning, offering the hope of rehabilitation for brain damage victims.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...-drivers-brains-rewired-by-The-Knowledge.html
