Research conducted by scientists from University College London, UEA, and the University of Lyon suggests that people in the countryside commonly develop a better sense of direction than those growing up in urban areas.
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Nearly 400,000 people from 38 different countries were asked to play a video game designed by neuroscientists called 'Sea Hero Quest' in which players were given a map and had to navigate through a virtual environment toward a wide variety of destinations.
After adjusting for confounding factors such as age, gender, and education levels, the team discovered that where people grew up affected their performance in the game, but their present residency had no effect on their results.
The researchers concluded that the development of your sense of direction is influenced by the environment in which you grow up. For example, people who live in the countryside develop a better sense of direction than city dwellers.
The team analyzed the complexity and unpredictability of the layouts of the study participants' hometowns by examining the entropy (disorder) of the local street networks.
Individuals who grew up in the countryside were most capable of finding their way the video game. Whereas people from cities with lesser entropy - organized grid patterns such as Chicago or New York – performed poorly on the navigation test.
Interestingly, those from places like Paris, Rome, or Prague, which have organic, less organized street layouts, performed only marginally worse than those from rural areas.
Less entropy (New York grid) - (Image Credit: netsign33 via Shutterstock)
More entropy (Paris) - (Image Credit: netsign33 via Shutterstock)
According to Dr. Antoine Coutrot, one of the lead authors, being raised in an environment with a more complicated layout of paths and roads aids in the development of navigational skills as it demands keeping track of direction when you are more likely to be making numerous turns at various angles. At the same time, you might also need to recall more streets and landmarks for each trip you make.
It also turns out that these navigational skills are not lost even after you move and no longer require them on a daily basis. Your sense of direction depends on your navigation skills, an important cognitive skill that helps you find your way home and remember how to get to work or school.
All in all, the results show that the environment in which someone grows up affects their cognitive skills. Moreover, this effect does not depend on age, gender, or education level.
Dr. Susan Kohlhaas, Director of Research from Alzheimer's Research UK, stated that the team has been able to collect a treasure trove of valuable data.
With regards to her specialism, she mentioned that we cannot conclude that living in a rural area will help protect against dementia as risk in this area depends on a complex mix of variables such as age, lifestyle, and genetics.
Additional research is required to unravel this complex mix of risk factors. However, according to Kohlhaas, the 'Sea Hero Quest' game research is a fantastic example of how mass participation in research can aid scientists to get us closer to breakthroughs.
The study has been published in the science journal nature. Be sure to check it out for further details.
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