Maguire et al (2000)- London taxi drivers

• carried out a correlational study and found that more grey matter was found in the hippocampus compared to the control group- a result of their increased spatial navigation as a taxi driver
• similarly, Draganski et al (2006) found that learning induced changes of medical students (three months after their exams) had occurred in the posterior (back) hippocampus and the parietal cortex
• aim: to examine whether structural changes changes could be detected in the brain of people with extensive experience of spatial navigation
• method: structural MRI scans were obtained. 16 right-handed male london taxi drivers participated, all had been driving for more than 1.5 years. Scans of 50 healthy right- handed males who did not drive taxis were included for comparison. the age did not differ between the two groups
• results:

  1. increased grey matter was found in the brains of taxi drivers compared with controls in two brain regions, the right and left hippocampi
  2. changes with navigation experience- a correlation was found between the amount of time spent as a taxi driver and volume in the right posterior hippocampus
• these results provide evidence for structural differences between the hippocampi of London taxi drivers and control participants, therefore suggesting that extensive practice with spatial navigation affects the hippocampus