PAGE 10


Get Lost by Jason Giacchino


ral ability to navigate? Recent studies point to some alarming results, including possible risk for Alzheimer's disease later in life. Well just when we, as a soci- ety, were finally coming to terms with our collective dependence upon electronics in our daily lives, the scientific community has to go and ruin it by making us feel guilty. The latest word coming out of laboratories the world over is that we are becom- ing GPS-dependent, a condition with consequences far more se- vere than simply looking like an idiot by talking to oneself while punching in destinations.


D McGill University researchers


conducted a series of studies with the goal of observing the effects GPS systems have on our brains. It’s a fair enough idea for a project, since cloning dinosaurs fell out of style with the decline of the Jurassic Park movie fran- chise. But the trouble is that they found avid GPS users are at a higher risk of suffering from memory problems and spatial orientation.


It turns out we generally nav-


igate using one of only two natu- ral methods. The first is spatial navigation, whereby landmarks are used to build cognitive maps in our gray matter, helping us to establish where we are. As mo- torcyclists we are especially fond of this method, and quotes like, “Oh, there’s the hardware store…so the turn is coming up on our left,” verify this fact.


The second method is a stimu-


oes reliance on a GPS device decrease our natu-


Blue Knights Utah IV/ Summer Quarter 2010


lus-response strategy where we travel on “auto pilot”, where rep- etition tells us that we’re taking the best route to reach a specific destination. Males especially seem quite fond of this approach and have been observed becom- ing grumpy, aggressive and, in some cases, violent when fellow members of the populous, espe- cially females, verbally question this natural ability of ours.


Interestingly, there is actually


a section of the brain devoted to the specific task of helping us navigate our surroundings. This area is called the hippocampus (which is odd considering it could have just as easily been named the much cooler-sounding rhi- nocampus), and it’s a little memory bank that basically tells us where we are, how we got there and which path is best to get us back.


Perhaps motorcyclists should


revert back to the old fashioned method of using maps and get- ting lost on countless stretches of road. Isn't that what motorcy- cling is all about? Through use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) researchers found that excessive reliance upon a GPS unit, rather than our natural navigation methods discussed above, seem to lead to atrophy of the hippocampus over time, actu- ally putting the individual at risk for cognitive problems such as Alzheimer's disease later in life. Yikes!


Just as I was about to detach


the ol’ Garmin to put it up on eBay in favor of a much more affordable compass and pocket atlas, the article went on to say that while researchers agree evi- dence relating hippocampus ac- tivity to memory in general is


VOLUME I , ISSUE IV


valid, there are still a lot of ques- tions surrounding the findings of this study. For instance, re- searchers are unsure as to whether using natural spatial strategies actually cause the hip- pocampus to grow, or if having a big hippocampus from the get-go causes an individual to favor natural spatial strategies. Think of it as the modern version of the old “which came first, the chick- en or the egg?” conundrum.


There are some additional


points to consider that don’t seem quite right here: Has GPS really been around long enough to track true long-term effects on users? And just how dependent upon the device are the people being studied here? Are they glancing at it on the handlebars of their Goldwing when trying to find the closest freeway on-ramp in Detroit at 3 a.m. or are they punching in coordinates to get from the living room to the bath- room?


I suppose the whole point is


null and void to those of us who use our motorcycles as an excuse to avoid destinations and most- efficient routes in general, in- stead savoring the experience as an opportunity to laze upon sec- ondary roads and “the long way around.” I’m sure, in time, a study will be released that con- cludes too much scenery can be harmful to one’s health. But hopefully by then people will be using teleportation to get from point A to point B, and those of us opting to stick with transpor- tation on two wheels will gladly take such risks. Jason Giacchino’s article is a reprint


from MotorcycleUSA, Dec. 28th, 2010.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11