Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences· 2000Q1
Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers
- 3,260citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2000year
Short summary
London taxi drivers show significantly larger posterior hippocampi and smaller anterior hippocampi compared to control subjects, with hippocampal volume correlating to years of driving experience.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- London taxi drivers have significantly larger posterior hippocampi than control subjects.
- Control subjects have larger anterior hippocampi than taxi drivers.
- Hippocampal volume positively correlated with time spent as a taxi driver in the posterior region.
- Hippocampal volume negatively correlated with time spent as a taxi driver in the anterior region.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Structural MRIs of the brains of humans with extensive navigation experience, licensed London taxi drivers, were analyzed and compared with those of control subjects who did not drive taxis. The posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger relative to those of control subjects. A more anterior hippocampal region was larger in control subjects than in taxi drivers. Hippocampal volume correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver (positively in the posterior and negatively in the anterior hippocampus). These data are in accordance with the idea that the posterior hippocampus stores a spatial representation of the environment and can expand regionally to accommodate elaboration of this representation in people with a high dependence on navigational skills. It seems that there is a capacity for local plastic change in the structure of the healthy adult human brain in response to environmental demands.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2000 · DOI ↗
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Field: Cognitive Neuroscience
Cognitive NeuroscienceNeuroscience