Taxi Drivers brains grow on the job

 Cab drivers grey matter enlarges and adapts to help them store a detailed mental map of the city, according to research.

Taxi drivers given brain scans by scientists at University College London had a larger hippocampus compared with other people.  This part of the brain is associated with navigation in birds and animals.

The scientists also found that part of the hippocampus grew larger as the taxi drivers spent more time in the job.

The tests found the only area of the taxi drivers brains that was different from the 50 other “control” subjects was the left and right hippocampus.

“One particular region of the hippocampus, the posterior or back, was bigger in taxi drivers,” said Dr Maguire.  “The front of the hippocampus was smaller in the taxi drivers compared to the controls.

 Grey Matter

 'This is very interesting because we now see there can be structural changes in healthy human brains”

The posterior hippocampus was also more developed in taxi divers who had been in the career for 40 years than in those who had been driving for a shorter period.

Dr Maguire's research is published in the US scientific journa, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 Source:  news.bbc.co.uk