This is your brain on GPS

Outside/In

GPS is essential these days. We use it for everything – from a hunter figuring out where the heck they are in the backcountry, to a delivery truck finding a grocery store, to keeping clocks in sync.

But our reliance on GPS may also be changing our brains. Old school navigation strengthens the hippocampus, and multiple studies suggest that our new reliance on satellite navigation may put us at higher risk for diseases like dementia.

In this episode, we map out how GPS took over our world – from Sputnik’s doppler effect, to the airplane crash that led to its widespread adoption – and share everyday stories of getting lost and found again.

Featuring: Dana Goward, M.R. O’Connor, Christina Phillips, Michelle Liu, Julia Furukawa, and Taylor Quimby

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LINKS

In 2023, Google Maps rerouted dozens of drivers in Los Angeles down a dirt road to the middle of nowhere to avoid a dust storm.

Maura O’Connor traveled from rural Alaska to the Australian bush to better understand how people navigate without GPS – and sometimes even maps.

Here’s the peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Nature, that found that young people who relied on GPS for daily driving had poorer spatial memories.

Another study, out of Japan, found that people who use smartphone apps like Google Maps to get around had a tougher time retracing their steps or remembering how they got to a place compared to people who use paper maps or landmarks.

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by Nate Hegyi

Edited by Taylor Quimby and Katie Colaneri

Our team includes Marina Henke, Justine Paradis, and Felix Poon

Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer

Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio