Tracy Packiam Alloway, PhD

A group of psychologists in London* were interested in the brains of taxi drivers. In particular, they wanted to know whether their visual-spatial memory was better than the rest of us.

There are many reasons why this would be the case. For starters, directions are taxi drivers’ lifeblood - they need to know their way inside and out of a city like London. They also have to take an extensive test called the Knowledge which requires drivers to know over 400 routes. It is such a demanding course that 75% of people drop out. Yet, there are fantastic gains for those who do stick with it. Of course, there is a financial incentive - drivers stand to make significantly more money once passing the test.

However, there is a surprise bonus as the psychologists discovered: taxi drivers have bigger brains! Yes, it is true. The part of brain associated with directions (visual-spatial memory) is actually larger is experienced taxi drivers compared to the average individual. The brain changes to accommodate the increasingly amount of information on navigating and directions that taxi drivers have to take in.

This is an exciting study because it demonstrates that our brain has a certain amount of flexibility and can expand in response to certain information. Previously, psychologists found brain changes only in patients who had sustained a brain injury, but in the case of the taxi drivers we see that all of us can benefit from working our memory muscles.

From TRAINING YOUR BRAIN for Dummies (due Dec 2010)

*E. Maguire et al. (2000) Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Psychologists were interested in how language skills impact Alzheimer’s*. They looked at a group of nuns in their study, as they didn’t smoke, drink, and had a similar lifestyle. They found that language skills in early adulthood were linked to Alzheimer’s in old age. Those nuns who kept a diary in their twenties were less likely to experience memory loss when they were older. More importantly, those who used very descriptive words to talk about their day had better language and memory skills than those who didn’t. What was even more fascinating is that although some of the nuns’ brains showed signs of Alzheimer’s, their cognitive skills, such as their language and memory, demonstrated no weakness! Some of these nuns were over 100 years old and were articulate and could engage in conversation. The nursing staff who were caring from them didn’t even know that they had Alzheimer’s. This is such an exciting study because it reveals that good language skills in early adulthood make a huge difference in decreasing our risk of getting Alzheimer’s and dementia. So grab a pencil and a book and start writing!

From TRAINING YOUR BRAIN FOR DUMMIES (due Dec 2010)

*Riley et al. (2005). Neurobiology of Aging.