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Habitual use of GPS negatively impacts spatial memory during self-guided navigation

Louisa Dahmani, Véronique D. Bohbot

2020 · Scientific Reports

Neuroscience
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From the abstract

Abstract Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation devices and applications have become ubiquitous over the last decade. However, it is unclear whether using GPS affects our own internal navigation system, or spatial memory, which critically relies on the hippocampus. We assessed the lifetime GPS experience of 50 regular drivers as well as various facets of spatial memory, including spatial memory strategy use, cognitive mapping, and landmark encoding using virtual navigation tasks. We first present cross-sectional results that show that people with greater lifetime GPS experience have worse spatial memory during self-guided navigation, i.e. when they are required to navigate without GPS. In a follow-up session, 13 participants were retested three years after initial testing. Although the longitudinal sample was small, we observed an important effect of GPS use over time, whereby greater GPS use since initial testing was associated with a steeper decline in hippocampal-dependent spatial memory. Importantly, we found that those who used GPS more did not do so because they felt they had a poor sense of direction, suggesting that extensive GPS use led to a decline in spatial memory rather than the other way around. These findings are significant in the context of society’s increasing reliance on GPS.

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In the conversation

Original HN comments, with labels from simple text rules. A label describes the whole comment and may miss context or irony. Read the discussion to make up your own mind. About the labels

7 selected excerpts · 7 total mentions

latexr
Neutral mention · rule
> When I read pieces like this all I think is, resistance to change is a helluva drug. When I read comments like yours, I’m reminded of (though I’m not comparing you to—I believe you are arguing in good faith) the cryptocurrency shills saying anyone who is against cryptocurrencies is just jealous they didn’t get in on the gold rush; they are incapable of imagining or accepting other people have their own reasons beyond what the author can themselves conceptualise. When people criticise cryptocurrencies, NFTs, the Metaverse, LLMs, they’re not just stubbornly “resisting change”. Those technologies have important issues and repercussions which should be addressed, we…
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shouldn’t just accept change unquestionably. > Of course, this all depends on using AI to enhance cognition and access to knowledge, as opposed to just letting a machine write all your code for you without review, Yegge-style. And the latter is exactly what is going to happen and is already happening in large enough quantity that it’s going to be a serious problem. > But the one about "endangering human development" is wholly in our individual hands. You can use AI to help you learn, or to replace the need to learn. That completely ignores the loss of skill that happens without you realising, as you lean more on a tool. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1... https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872 This is nothing new. We already know that e.g. heavy GPS use makes us weaker at navigating on our own. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62877-0 > One real lesson from this is perhaps that we need to teach people how to use AI in ways that benefit their development, not just their output. Yes, that is a good goal. But good luck achieving it.
Original comment AI-Assisted Cognition Endangers Human Development
aix1
Neutral mention · rule
There's quite a lot of research into what our increasing reliance on technology is doing to our briains. Here is one paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62877-0 "Although the longitudinal sample was small, we observed an important effect of GPS use over time, whereby greater GPS use since initial testing was associated with a steeper decline in hippocampal-dependent spatial memory. Importantly, we found that those who used GPS more did not do so because they felt they had a poor sense of direction, suggesting that extensive GPS use led to a decline in spatial memory rather than the other way around."
Original comment Andrej Karpathy talks about "Claws"
jchw
Neutral mention · rule
I recall reading that over-reliance on GPS navigation is legitimately bad for your brain health. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62877-0 This is rather scary. Obviously, it makes me think of my own personal over-reliance on GPS, but I am really worried about a young relative of mine, whose car will remain stationary for as long as it takes to get a GPS lock... indefinitely.
Original comment Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt When Using an AI Assistant
rangerelf
Neutral mention · rule
Because, nature in its infinite wisdom, gets rid of what's not used. You don't use your muscles? They atrophy. You don't make an effort to travel without a gps regularily, to force your brain to remember your way around naturally? Your spatial memory atrophies and becomes useless [here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62877-0 ] People don't need to learn math anymore, hence, no more calculus lessons? People are literally becoming idiots who can't calculate simple change at the cash register without pulling out their calculators. It's exercise. It keeps the brain itself from atrophying. It stops you from becoming a "wetware LLM" that's just parroting whatever echo of a thought (natural or otherwise) goes through it.
Original comment Why teach calculus in the age of AI
al_borland
Neutral mention · rule
Yeah, this isn’t the first time we’ve outsourced our thinking. The ubiquitous use of GPS comes to mind leading to lower abilities in the hippocampus. It grows when a person trains to be a London cab driver (no GPS allowed). [0] Yet abilities decline as GPS use is used. [1] These aren’t huge studies either, but also fall under the larger, “use it or lose it,” umbrella. [0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34914151/ [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62877-0
Original comment Protecting my attention at the dopamine carnival
j_w
Neutral mention · rule
Using map reading skills as a proxy for this is a bit of a strawman. People who use GPS habitually have worse navigational and spatial awareness skills. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62877-0 If you habitually use a calculator for all arithmetic, could the result not be similar? What if you reach to an LLM for all your coding, general research, etc.? These tools may vastly speed up some workflows, but your brain is a muscle.
Original comment My AI skeptic friends are all nuts
tomgp
Neutral mention · rule
Perhaps not surprising given what we know about how e.g. satnav usage affects our navigational competence. Feels like outsourcing our reasoning and problem solving would have an analagous effect. "Habitual use of GPS negatively impacts spatial memory during self-guided navigation": https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62877-0
Original comment Ask HN: Is anyone experiencing "AI brain rot?"

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