An international team of British and French scientists has chosen to help people navigate the terrain better, reminiscent of the places where they spent their childhood.
In the course of the participation of about 400 thousand people from 38 countries, subjects were invited to play the video game Sea Hero Quest (SHQ), which requires their ability to navigate the map (It is worth clarifying, SHQ was at one time specifically designed for patients with dementia symptoms, which manifest themselves in the deterioration of cognitive abilities – approx. ed. Techcult ..).
Participants of the game in Central Asia, indicating the starting position and the coordinates of several control points that they had to find. The scientists evaluated the evaluative navigation used in 11 levels of the game.
To Study Any Changes in Orientation A Special Methodology Was Developed to Assess Urban Complexity The researchers calculated the entropy (measure of network disturbance) of the street network (SNE) of some metropolitan areas in 38 countries where study participants lived. So, for example, “mesh” Chicago has a very modest assessment, compared to Prague, which has an elongated structure and a higher assessment.
Most of the participating countries took part in the SNE survey, which, for example, is typical for cities in France, the Republic, Spain, India and Thailand. Conversely, in the US and Argentina, the SNE was significantly lower.
The results of the studies confirmed that the study of a complex environment has a positive effect on the formation of new neurons in the brain, and increased activity – on the volume of the hippocampus and complex surface navigation in humans.
Source: Tech Cult
