A new study found the reason some people have better sense of direction or navigation skills than others. The researchers identified the part of the brain responsible for the "homing signals" guide someone to the right direction.
Researchers at the University College London focused their study on the entorhinal region of the brain that is connected to memory and navigation. The team believes that the same region is responsible for telling if an individual is facing the right direction at the moment and where he or she is supposed to go next.
The study involved 16 participants who underwent computer simulation wherein they were shown different places with each corner having different objects. After which, the researchers assigned each participant into a corner, and instructed each to navigate their way to another corner. The team used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to observe the brain activity of each participant.
"In this simple test, we were looking to see which areas of the brain were active when participants were considering different directions," said study leader Dr Hugo Spiers of the UCL Experimental Psychology in a press release.. "We were surprised to see that the strength and consistency of brain signals from the entorhinal region noticeably influenced people's performance in such a basic task. We now need to investigate the effect in more complex navigational tasks, but I would expect the differences in entorhinal activity to have a larger impact on more complex tasks."
The findings imply that the brain has an "internal compass" that influences the navigational skills of each individual. Having a poor sense of direction could be an indication that the brain couldn't keep up with the different directions presented.
The results of the study can also be used to develop a simple test to identify if one is at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in the future.
"Why some people are better navigators than others is intrinsically interesting, but it also helps us explain the processes that go wrong in degenerative diseases such as dementia - leaving people feeling lost and confused," said Dr John Isaac, from the Wellcome Trust, which funded the study, added.
This study was published in the Dec. 18 issue of the Current Biology.
