18. Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers. Magu

Question

18. Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers. Maguire, et al. (2000) Before analysis of this paper – (i.e. in general) why would one expect a taxi driver to have larger portions of the hippocampus compared to a non-taxi driver? Maguire, et al. found that there was larger hippocampal area in the posterior hippocampus for taxi drivers than controls. Discuss Figure 3b as it relates to this main result and connect this information to discussion of the posterior hippocampus from the discussion section.

(its a physiological question)

Explanation / Answer

Hippocampus is a small region of the brain, located in the medial temporal lobe of the brain, underneath the cortical surface. It forms a part of the limbic system and is primarily associated with long term memory and spatial navigation. Since taxi drivers driving in big cities with complex road maps need to show a remarkable capacity to remember routes and navigate in the city. Maguire and co-workers (2006) have reported greater gray matter volume in mid-posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers and less volume in anterior hippocampi in taxi drivers compared to bus drivers in London city. This could be related to their higher navigation experience and spatial knowledge. They suggested that a greater posterior hippocampal gray matter volume in taxi drivers is associated with complex spatial representation facilitating expert navigation and this might have dveloped over new spatial memories and gray matter volume in the anterior hippocampus.

Since London taxi drivers need to undergo extensive training and learn to navigate between thousands of places in the city in order to pass very stringent examinations and acquire the license, Maguire, et al. (2000) compared the MRI scans of taxi drivers who had all acquired a significant amount of large-scale spatial information and passed the examination (test samples) with that of those who lacked extensive navigation exposure (controls). In their research paper, Figure 3(b) shows that volume of gray matter in the right hippocampus is significantly correlated with the time spent in learning to be a licensed London taxi driver, positively in the right posterior hippocampus. Thus they demonstrated that taxi drivers had a significantly greater volume in the posterior hippocampus compared tp control subjects who showed greater volume in the anterior hippocampus. It was concluded in their study that navigational skills required for licensed London taxi drivers is associated with a relative redistribution of gray matter in the hippocampus in posterior lobe.  Maguire and co-workers (2000) belived that the changes in hippocampal gray matter, at least on the right, are acquired changes indicating the ability of healthy human brain to aquire changes based on the environmental stimulus.

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