A 2024 article in BMJ reports that taxi drivers are less likely to die of Alzheimer’s disease than most of us. Why should that be?

    In Alzheimer’s disease, a particular part of the brain, the hippocampus, degenerates. The hippocampus is related to two functions of the brain: the formation of new memories, and spatial memory, the ability to navigate. This can explain why patients with this disorder have trouble remembering things, and get lost.

    Taxi drivers in London use navigational skills intensely, because London has complicated streets. A 2000 publication describes MRI imaging of the brain done on London taxi drivers. Their brains had very large hippocampi, suggesting that finding their way in London’s streets caused growth in that part of their brains.

    In the BMJ study, another group of researchers looked at occupations and cause of death. Taxi drivers and ambulance drivers were less likely to die of Alzheimer’s than the general population, but this was not true for EMT workers. So, it is not riding around in the ambulance that is helpful, it’s navigating the vehicle.

    What can you and I take from this study? I am not planning to start driving a taxi. But I do think that lessening dependence on GPS technology is a good idea. Knowing our way around, it turns out, is good for our brain health.