Did you know some people with early dementia may “have problems judging distance and determining colour or contrast, causing issues with driving”?

The Alzheimer’s Association also says that they might also struggle to remember once-familiar routes.

In a recent TikTok, neurologist Dr Bing explained that his years of medical experience affect his driving style.

Sharing things he doesn’t like to do “as a neurologist,” the expert said: “I don’t like to rely on GPS for everything.” 

Why not use GPS as often as you can?

“GPS makes our lives too convenient,” the neurologist suggested.

“Relying too much on GPS might actually weaken your brain’s spatial memory.” 

A 2024 UCL study says that struggles with spatial navigation can reveal dementia risk years before diagnosis, though Dr Bing didn’t reference or mention that paper. 

Instead, he talked about research done on taxi drivers which found that “those who memorise city maps have a larger hippocampus, which is the part of the brain responsible for memory and navigation,” leading to a lower dementia risk.

The 2024 British Medical Journal article he seems to be referring to says that both taxi and ambulance drivers “whose jobs require frequent spatial and navigational processing have the lowest levels of death due to Alzheimer’s disease compared with other occupations.” 

People who rely too much on that lose out on the opportunity to “exercise this part of the brain,” Dr Bing suggests, so he tries to “navigate on my own when I can, or at least visualise my routes before turning on the GPS.”

Does using GPS definitely mean I’ll get dementia?

Absolutely not. The 2024 study we mentioned above didn’t find a correlation between the two ― it just found a link. 

Interestingly, though, neurologist and dementia expert Dr Richard Restak explained in his book How To Prevent Dementia that your “cognitive reserve” can work as a sort of buffer against Alzheimer’s. 

“Cognitive reserve theory refers to the representation stored within the brain of the knowledge, experience, and life events that accumulate during the course of a person’s lifetime,” he said. 

That’s why regularly challenging our brains ― be that through puzzles, reading, or, yes, planning your route ― might help to ward off dementia.