Finding Our Way

A Nokia Maps survey named London the most confusing city in the entire world. So, it comes as no surprise that the cities cab drivers, who must memorize some 25,000 streets and thousands of landmarks in order to pass a driving test for the job, have a larger hippocampus than most of us. That’s the part of their brain dealing with spatial relationship. According to University College London neuroscientist Eleanor Maguire, the longer they had been driving, the larger the cabbie’s hippocampus.

Even more curious was Maguire’s finding that the drivers' back side of the hippocampus was large while the front was smaller. Could it be, they are paying a price for proficiency? Is the brain so easily shaped by the demands we place on it that we lose agility in one area by concentrating our efforts in another?

Is this the unintended consequence of our blind obedience to GPS devises, disconnecting us from the world around because there’s really need to pay attention? It’s worth noting that studies have tied a shirking hippocampus to increased risk of dementia.

Perhaps we should take time to enjoy the freedom of getting lost, so we can practice the adventure of finding our way back home. And since we must exercise this skill in the physical world to keep it.. does this mean we must practice finding our way in the spiritual world as well?

Stephen Goforth