A study concludes that the place where we spend our childhood influences our spatial abilities. Spain is the country where these differences between rural areas and cities are least appreciated
The streets, alleys, paths, and parks of our childhood are the scene where many memories are created, but they also leave another unsuspected imprint on the brain. An international team of researchers has found that where people grow up influences their sense of direction as adults. In this way, those who have spent their first years in rural or suburban areas, with winding roads and disorderly urban planning, find their way around better than those who have done so in cities, especially if their blocks are rectangular. The study is published in the journal ‘Nature’.
Scientists from the Claude Bernard University of Lyon, the University of East Anglia (UEA), and University College London used data from 400,000 people from 38 countries who played the video game ‘ Sea Hero Quest’, designed for Alzheimer’s research.
The volunteers had to navigate a boat through a virtual environment to find checkpoints that are shown on the map.
The researchers found that the place where the participants grew up had a significant influence on their performance in the game. People who spent their childhood in the countryside stood out for their sense of orientation compared to those who did so in cities. The extent of this difference varies from country to country: very strong in Canada, the United States, Argentina, and Saudi Arabia, much less so in Austria, France, India, and Vietnam. Interestingly, «Spain is the country in the world where the impact of cities on people is smallest. There is no difference, ”Hugo Spiers, from UCL, assures this newspaper. The team analyzed the ten largest cities in our country.
Comparison of the complexity (and entropy) of two large cities, Prague and Chicago. The circles on the right show the number of branches with given angles: almost all the angles are represented in Prague, while the Chicago crossing is almost all at right angles. – Coutrot et al./Nature
In addition, the study compared the cities of origin of the players through an analysis of the entropy (disorder) of the street networks, to measure the complexity and randomness of their urbanism. It turned out that people whose hometowns had lower entropy (known as hypodermic plan, grid-ordered layouts like those in Chicago or New York) were worse at completing the orientation task. However, those in cities with less tidy layouts and with all the angles present, like Prague or Paris, performed only slightly worse than those in rural areas. Thus, according to their results, growing up in a city with a complex topography confers a better sense of orientation than in a simple one.
Complex environment
In general, spatial navigation skills decline with age, starting in early adulthood. “We found that those who grew up in areas with grid-like streets may have abilities comparable to people five years older living in rural areas, and in some areas, the difference was even greater,” says Spiers.
In a second version of the game, the authors found that participants of urban origin could move more efficiently in environments comparable to those of their childhood. Thus, people who grew up in checkerboard cities (with parallel and perpendicular streets) were slightly better off in similar environments.
But what makes people from rural backgrounds more adept at guidance? In short, training in more complex and variable environments. For Antoine Coutrot, from the University of Lyon, “growing up in a place with a more complex road or path layout requires keeping track of direction when you are more likely to make multiple turns at different angles, while you may also need to remember more streets and landmarks for every trip.”
According to Spiers, “The results show that it is specifically a lack of ‘grid’ that underlies better spatial ability. We check for a variety of other possible things, for example, the length or density of the streets, the number of turns… but the most important factor is the entropy of the street design.”
The Sea Hero Quest project was designed for Alzheimer’s research, as space navigation deficits are a clear symptom of the disease. But the study doesn’t conclude that moving around a rural area helps protect against dementia. Similarly, they are also not sure which areas of the brain these differences influence.
