Do you ever wonder if the new modern technologies are rotting your brain? Are you dependent on your car or cellphone GPS to get you where you want to go? You may want to re-think that.

Scientists have found that when you use your brain to navigate your route in your car or on foot that you use a map in your head or you find your way on autopilot. Either way you are using the hippocampus area of your brain. If you depend on the GPS you are not.

When scientists have examined the brains of taxi cab drivers in London where they are always looking for shortcuts, they found that their hippocampus was larger than those of non-taxi cab drivers. Older adults who do not use GPS and use maps to navigate have more grey matter than those who don’t.

It is possible by activating this part of the brain that we may be able to prevent dementia. This is one instance where it might make sense to do things the old fashioned way. If you need to find a new route to work or go to a place you have not been to in awhile, use a map and navigate on your own.

Another thing that can help is to start calling people the old-fashioned way. Remember their numbers and call them. Do not rely on your smart phone for directions or phone numbers. It can make you stupid!