ТОПОГРАФИЧЕСКИЙ КРЕТИНИЗМ или КАК БЫТЬ, если МИР ПОХОЖ НА ЛАБИРИНТ?

Many of us dream of traveling, imagining how we will cross the road on a rented car somewhere in Europe or take a walk with a map in our hands among the monuments of architecture. But some of us may have difficulties with locating the location. Such people are often jokingly said that they have topographic stupidity. Or maybe not a joke. Recently, on September 4, the Day of Unknown Roads was celebrated. Can you imagine such a day? I did not know about it. And in honor of this holiday, we decided to deal with the issue of topographic stupidity and tell what it really is, what are its reasons and who is subject to it. Before we get to the topic in more detail, I want to remind you that I have two YouTube channels, Smart Education about foreign education and Egor Yermeev about my travels and facts about different cities and countries. If you are interested in studying abroad, go there, subscribe. If you are interested in travel, if you are interested in travel content, stay here, subscribe to this channel and watch, in fact, about topographic stupidity. What is it? I think that in principle, everyone understands. This is a disadvantage of a person's ability to navigate the terrain. They begin with the inability to find a house, even with the help of a navigator, and end with a complete lack of understanding of where they came from and how to return. To research. To famous British scientists. But now we have a Norwegian one. Norwegian neurobiologists in 2014 were awarded the Nobel Prize for research related to the discovery of cells responsible for the system of brain orientation. These cells react simultaneously to three coordinates, similar to a GPS navigator. They transmit information about the current location and the next direction of movement. At that time, scientists even hoped that this discovery would pave the way for the development of drugs that would improve the ability to navigate in space. When we move around the same area every day, our brain creates a so-called cognitive map. These maps allow us to quite accurately imagine the route in the mind. It is interesting that at the same time there is no need to see the road. In 1998, researchers from Russia conducted an experiment to study the influence of visual memory on the creation of a route in the mind. In the experiment, both the blind and the sighted participated. They were divided into two groups, each of which included both categories. And for 10 days they explored the territory. For one group, it was a familiar terrain, and for the other, a completely unfamiliar one. Later, the researchers compared the cognitive maps of the participants in the experiment and got the following results. In an unfamiliar terrain, the most accurate maps were for the sighted participants. At the same time, in a familiar territory, the sighted demonstrated high accuracy in the composition of the maps. This is due to the fact that the blind cannot navigate with the help of visual data and are actually forced to carefully plan each step, which allows them to easily recreate the route in the mind in the future. The right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for the orientation in space, and in women this hemisphere is often less developed. Therefore, it is believed that women are more prone to topographical cretinism than men. Sorry, women, if you see that I'm talking to you like that. This is what researchers say. This can be a result of the historical context, when women, as housewives, spent more time at the blind and took care of their children, while men were hunting and required skills of orientation and understanding of the terrain. Again, all the claims to scientists. Sometimes parents can influence the development of topographical orientation in a child. That's true, all the problems are from childhood. For example, this is already from a psychologist. If a child, who is initially left-handed, is actively taught to write with his right hand, this can cause confusion in the understanding of the sides. As a result, there is a possibility that in the future the child will develop a disability to navigate in space. The emergence of such a problem can also explain the presence of problems with spatial perception that may have specific roots. For example, in childhood, a child may find himself in an unfamiliar situation, which caused him fear. As an option, he got lost in the forest or got lost during a family trip. This fear can turn into adulthood and lead to a desire to explore new routes and avoid unfamiliar places. Hyper-caring parents can also develop poor orientation to the terrain, which did not allow children to independently explore the surrounding world. Yes, guys, excessive care is not always good. Another interesting fact. More cases of disability to navigate the terrain are observed among people working in humanitarian areas than among technical specialists. Psychologists claim that by the inclination of a child to certain sciences, it is possible to predict whether he will have such problems or not. So, if a schoolchild experiences difficulties with drawing or geometry, then most likely in the future he may have difficulties with orientation in space. In certain situations, topographical difficulties can be associated with serious problems. Among them, Alzheimer's disease or brain injuries. How to be if you have topographical retardedness? If you have to strain your memory to remember the number of the house, or the name of the street of your close friends, or you went to the store and do not remember how to return back, or you arrived in some other city, left the hotel and forgot where to go. What to do with it at all? You need to develop your memory. You can use the so-called method, a funny name is the palace of memories. This is a mnemonic technique that helps to remember and restore information using mental images and spatial associations. First, you need to choose a set of places that you are familiar with and can be easily visualized in your mind. These can be the rooms of your home, places from your childhood, the streets of your city or any other physical places that you can clearly imagine. Then, in order to remember any list of elements, numbers or facts, you connect each element with one of the selected places. Imagine how each element is part of this place. For example, if you need to learn a paragraph from a textbook, then you mentally attach the first part of it to the door of your room, the second part to the closet, which is located right after the door, and so on. And when you need to remember information from a paragraph, you, imagining your room, will be able to repeat paragraph after paragraph. This mnemonic technique requires practice. Initially, it may seem unrealistic, but it helps to develop the skill of using locuses or those very locations and become a tool for improving memory and facilitating the memory of information. Let's move on. For some people, topographical cretinism is more associated with inattention. Many people, being in new places, listen to music in their headphones, talk on the phone or communicate in messengers. As a result, it is difficult for them to remember their route, since they are simply distracted by something else. To develop attention, psychologists recommend, for example, writing with both hands at the same time. At the same time, with your left hand you write the word mom, and with your right hand you write dad. As an option. This method promotes both attention and stimulates the development of the brain, and after a while you will be able to focus on two things at the same time. Another less obvious reason why people can observe topographical cretinism. This is a banal laziness. People who rarely go out in the open are more likely to be subject to topographical cretinism. For example, a person who leads a low-mobility lifestyle and does not often go out can have difficulties in memorizing routes. This is logical. This is due to the fact that the brain does not use the orientation mechanisms, gradually disabling them. The same with muscles, with physical exercises. If you do not train, you come to the gym, it is difficult for you to run, to lift some weights. The same is with orientation in space. Therefore, it makes sense to periodically arrange walks or outings to the store so as not to lose your orientation skills. Periodically, preferably once a day. Friends, if you liked this video, this topic, like it, write in the comments if you had cases when you got lost. Do you think you have well-developed orientation skills or vice versa? You went out, crossed the road and already forgot where you were going. Also, if you are interested in some topic about travel or some psychological things, write to me about it, recommend topics and we will shoot videos on them. Bye!