“And it’s almost like a muscle - if you don’t exercise it or work it out, it could atrophy faster than it normally would.”Īncient humans used the hippocampus regularly in their lives as hunter-gatherers, but with recent innovations in GPS and navigation software, modern people rarely have to think about how to get somewhere. “We’re underutilizing that brain region,” said Heisz. Heisz calls it a “use it or lose” scenario. This decline manifests as the difficulty navigating and getting around is generally seen in early-onset Alzheimer’s. Spatial processing and the ability to navigate are governed by an area of the brain called the hippocampus, which, according to Jennifer Heisz, Canada Research Chair in brain health and aging at McMaster University, is among the first areas of the brain to be affected by Alzheimer’s. “When it comes to brain training, the physical and cognitive demands of orienteering have the potential to give you more bang for your buck compared to exercising only.” Waddington says orienteering or any sort of way-finding can boost brain health more than sticking strictly to your daily workout routine.

“And I’ve always thought there had to be some reason why people this old can still be out here doing such a high-demand activity.” “You see people from all ages, like eight to 87 years old, taking part ,” Waddington said. They found that people with orienteering experience also reported having stronger navigation abilities and improved spatial memory than those with little to no experience, regardless of age, sex, or lifestyle factors. The research team, led by McMaster University graduate student Emma Waddington, who participates in competitive orienteering (a sport in which athletes uses specialized maps of a landscape to race to a series of locations on a course from start to finish), polled 151 healthy adults ranging in age from 18-87 with varying orienteering experience. It’s time to switch off Google Maps and pull out a paper map, say scientists from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.Īccording to research published in the journal PLOS One, navigating with a map and compass might help stave off cognitive decline and symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Gmap direction