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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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- Whether People Inform Themselves or Remain Ignorant is Due to Three Factors
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday January 25 2023, @05:19PM
There was a story a few years back about three women who decided to take a day trip from Pahrump, NV to Scotty's Castle in Death Valley National Park. They got there all right, but on the way back got lost by listening to their GPS. Somehow they ended up running out of gas on an unpaved road two desert valleys over in the opposite direction from Pahrump. They found water in an old cabin, or they probably would have perished, and had to spend two days there until found. There are literally two paved roads they could have taken to get to Scotty's Castle, all they had to do was remember which direction to turn at a stop sign to head the right way home. Apparently they were incapable of that simple feat of navigation on their own. They complained their GPS kept telling them "turn right", and they just got themselves more lost. I'm guessing the GPS doesn't have a feature that simply says "turn around and go the other way". I can't help but think that if they had a road map a simple glance could have kept them on the right path.