Like all animals, our human brains have a type of GPS that helps us locate where we are and how to get to the places we want to go.
The original research that discovered what part of our brains acted as an internal GPS started in 1971 by John O’Keefe who discovered that a lot of this happens via “position cells” in the hippocampus.
More recently, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania expanded on this when they discovered that similar electrical signals are elicited whether you’re navigating or remembering.
When it comes to navigation, the hippocampus is where it’s at. It’s responsible for mapping, navigation and memory storage, which are all interrelated as you can’t find your way somewhere unless you know where you are, have an internal map of your environment and can remember key landmarks to help you get where you want to go.
How can you use this information to have a stronger brain? And can you use this to navigate your life better, not just how you get from point A to point B but how you navigate life goals?
What London Cabdrivers Can Teach Us About Our Brains
A clue is found in the brains of London cabdrivers who must memorize the city’s 25,000 streets to pass a topographical test of endurance called The Knowlege to become a cab driver.
Neuroscientist Eleanor Maguire wanted to see if this made a difference in the size of the cabdrivers’ hippocampi. It turned out that it did. She studied their brains over the four years that they prepared for this exam and discovered that the ones who passed — who really memorized and learned the locations of the streets — had a larger hippocampus.
Having a larger hippocampus is a good thing if you were wondering as its role is vital in our well-being. People with Alzheimers, for example, typically have shrunken hippocampi which is why they can get lost or disoriented even in familiar surroundings.
Memorizing streets during a time of smart phones may seem unnecessary but for our brains, it’s not. Many scientists believe that when you route yourself based on memory instead of using a GPS, you will have more activity in the hippocampus and this activity will help grow this part of your brain.
If you use your GPS regularly, you don’t have to worry. You’re still using your hippocampus all the time, navigating your way to a new restaurant in town or finding a store at the mall. And people don’t get Alzheimers because they don’t use their memory to find places.
But if you find yourself often in habit mode and constantly relying on technology instead of your inner GPS, you might want to consider exercising this part of your brain a bit more. In fact, researchers are looking into this research to develop early interventions to “exercise” the hippocampi of Alzheimer patients to slow the progression.
Four Ways to Exercise Your Hippocampus
Put Away Your Phone
Rely less on your GPS and more on your memory to find your way to places. Not only because you want to exercise your hippocampus but because you may notice that when you’re not following Siri’s instructions, you are looking more closely at where you are and are more connected and present in your environment.
Memorize a Poem
Any memorization practice is good for your hippocampus and not only when it relates to directions. With digital devices, though, it’s very easy to rely less on our memories and more on our devices. Can you build in some memorization time? In elementary school, I can remember having to memorize The Gettysburg Address. That may be too tall a task for me now, but taking time to memorize a poem would be a good workout. Start with a short one.
Get Lost
Getting lost is also good for the hippocampus because it gets you out of habit mode. Finding a new way to work is like a round of pushups for your brain, as long as you don’t use your phone to map the way.
Take a Roadtrip
Extrapolating from all this, traveling must be very good for the hippocampus. Not only does your brain get the stimulation of all the new sights, sounds, smells, and tastes, but there’s the constant looking for places, getting lost and getting found. It’s not necessary to get on a plane to travel. An unexplored nearby town or neighborhood is also a place you don’t know and will have to exercise your brain to navigate.
Navigating Life Goals
Recent research published in May 2023 in Nature Magazine takes this a step further. Researchers write:
Recent work in cognitive and systems neuroscience has suggested that the hippocampus might support planning, imagination, and navigation by forming cognitive maps that capture the abstract structure of physical spaces, tasks, and situations.
For your brain, navigation is navigation, whether it’s driving your car to a new city or getting a new job.
To apply this research to planning or goal setting, put away the traditional to-do list.
Instead, create a map of the project you’re working on. This will give your brain a visual representation of where you are and where you want to go and activate your hippocampus. Then, plan your route, memorize it, get lost in the middle, keep going, refer to your map and you’ll get there.
Here’s to your strong and active hippocampus!
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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From The Good Men Project on Medium
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Photo credit: Vale Zmeykov on Unsplash
