Using digital maps and GPS systems every time we move from one place to another could cause the human brain to shrink . This is what emerges from a recent study carried out by Canadian researchers from McGill University, in Montreal (Canada). The scientists used magnetic resonance imaging to compare the brain anatomy of subjects used to using satellite navigation devices with that of individuals who do not use them. And they observed that the former had a smaller volume of gray matter in the hippocampus , an area of the brain whose main functions are the consolidation of memory and learning.
This finding agrees with the ideas of the evolutionary theorist and popularizer Richard Dawkins, who has suggested that the decisive stimulus for the brain of our ancestors to grow apart from the rest of the apes was, precisely, the ability to draw maps.
