taxi drivers' hippocampi

From: Gatherer, D. (Derek) (D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl)
Date: Mon Mar 20 2000 - 13:41:02 GMT

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From: "Gatherer, D. (Derek)" <D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl>
To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: taxi drivers' hippocampi
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 14:41:02 +0100
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    The paper on taxi drivers' expansive (and expaniding) hippocampi is
    available at:

    [Some wag may remark that cabbies have always had a high opinion of their
    own intelligence.]

    http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/070039597

    The conclusions of the paper are:

    a) posterior hippocampus is involved in processing spatial information
    b) there is capacity for plastic change in adult human brain in response to
    the environment

    There is also the odd finding that the anterior hippocampus shrinks in taxi
    drivers. So as well as gaining neural tissue, they're also losing it.

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