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Turning off Waze or your favorite GPS app and using an old-fashioned map may be the best way to fight Alzheimer's disease, a new study reveals:
Researchers at McMaster University say orienteering, an outdoor sport that exercises the mind and body through navigation puzzles, can train the brain and stave off cognitive decline. The aim of orienteering is to navigate between checkpoints or controls marked on a special map. In competitive orienteering, the challenge is to complete the course in the quickest time.
For older adults, scientists say the sport — which sharpens navigational skills and memory — could become a useful intervention measure to fight off the slow decline related to dementia onset. They believe the physical and cognitive demands of orienteering can stimulate parts of the brain our ancient ancestors used for hunting and gathering.
The human brain evolved thousands of years ago to adapt to harsh environments by creating new neural pathways, the McMaster team explains. Those same brain functions are not always necessary today, however, thanks to GPS apps and food being readily available.
Unfortunately, the team says these skills fall into a "use it or lose it" situation.
[...] People who participated in orienteering displayed better spatial navigation and memory skills, suggesting that adding elements of wayfinding into their daily routines benefited them over their lifetime.
Journal Reference:
Emma E. Waddington, Jennifer J. Heisz. Orienteering experts report more proficient spatial processing and memory across adulthood, PLOS ONE (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280435)
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(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday January 25 2023, @05:59AM
Really? People that are normally or often out in the woods are not normally the once that fall of the cliffs or get eaten by wolves, not sure about the skin cancer. But these people tend to know the outdoors and the signs. It's the other people that fall of the cliffs etc as they are looking at their phone or trying to take a selfie to share with their friends. It's a similar group of people that tend to believe that oh look a big grey doggy out in the wild and here come him three or four friends that end up as wolf snacks, even tho that is still very uncommon I would say. Just as Bear attacks are always very uncommon and usually something that happens by accident or to idiots that don't know what they are doing.
But back to maps. While I do find that the digital maps with all their details are great, on some level it's just to much. To much information now that you need to scale off. To many dots that doesn't mean anything, the hidden commercial info -- I didn't ask where all the restaurants are or that this is the office of SuperCorpDeluxe etc but they paid the map provider to be added for some reason. So I tend to just look at maps as needed, I am here -- I need to get here, so go like this and then turn here or there. Done. Then I leave the digital map where it belongs, at home -- on my computer. Also if you are not out in the wild and need a map -- after all I would think these days that most people use these maps in an urban setting you could just ask someone for direction.