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Re: Genes - Link

Posted by alexandra_k on August 19, 2014, at 14:50:15

In reply to Re: Genes - Link, posted by SLS on August 18, 2014, at 18:03:24

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/london-taxi-memory/

taxi drivers in london had bigger hippocampuses (hippocampi?) than taxi drivers in other places. and than normal controls. i think... i think i get that right...

they thought that the hippocampus played a significant role in spatial representation. mapping the complexities of london streets. pretty sure that a lot of work has focused on the role of the hippocampus in memory and spatial orientation (especially with respect to maze running in critters).

the hippocampus is fairly centrally located. 'relay station of the brain'. pretty sure thats the catchphrase i needed for the multiguess... jolly hard to find a process that it is NOT involved in.

back to the london cab drivers... i guess one would predict that they would be lacking in these risky genes? also that they wouldn't report history of particular trauma or something like that.

i'm wary about this 'delay the size of the hipppocampus forever'. firstly, because when it comes to brains size doesn't matter so much as organization and... stuff we know not what. remember the stuff on how we only use 80% of our brain anyway??? on just how surprisingly normal people are who have lost significant portions of their brain due to injury (especially when those injuries occurred relatively early during development - but also when those injuries occur later in life). those london cabbies... do we think that their hippocampuses were big in the first place and (crudely) that's how come they had a place to put all that information... or do we think that the process of learning resulted in the brain region growing?

i wonder how well these small hippocampus people can be trained to run mazes or navigate streets or computer games... or perhaps it is pointless to try...

 

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URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20140815/msgs/1070028.html