An adult's sense of direction is strongly influenced by the type of environment in which they grew up.

According to a recent study published in

Nature

, people who grew up in a rural environment are thus at an advantage compared to urban ones.

Scientists have long been interested in the influence of the environment on human cognitive abilities, and experiments with mice had already been carried out.

“With humans, it is much more complicated to quantify, insofar as we cannot lock them in cages”, explains Antoine Coutrot, LIRIS researcher from Lyon and main author of the study.

Cities more “complex” than others

The researchers therefore used the "Sea Hero Quest" user database, created in 2016 for neuroscience research on Alzheimer's disease.

The video game invites you to memorize a course of river canals, of increasing difficulty.

Data from 400,000 participants from 38 different countries were analyzed.

Result: on average, “people who grew up in a rural environment have a better sense of direction than those who grew up in a more urban environment”, according to Antoine Coutrot.

“The countryside is a rather complex environment, in that it's very loosely organised, with longer distances, involving more memorization of a route.

»

The difference tends to disappear for people who grew up in a “complex” city (Paris or Prague), as opposed to cities with a grid plan (like Chicago).

To precisely measure this effect, the researchers established an entropy index (or complexity index) for 380 cities.

Improvement always possible

The study also notes that the ability to orient acquired while growing up “then changes little according to our age and the different trips we are going to make, such as moving house”.

Progress is possible but the development will always be more limited in adulthood, like learning a foreign language.

Another obvious observation confirmed by experience: one always finds one's way better in a familiar setting.

To verify this, the researchers developed an urban version of the game, and found that people from a grid city had a slight advantage in navigating there.

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