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The ones that do stopped being taxi drivers.
by chuckadams 2mo ago
The ones that do stopped being taxi drivers.
- cjbgkagh 2mo agoI would assume that the task of being a taxi driver would act as a near constant test for Alzheimer’s, would be interesting to do GWAS studies on older taxi drivers and compare against taxi drivers who quit earlier in their careers.
- don_esteban 2mo agoYeah, that was the first thing that comes to mind. And the second thing: What about modern taxi drivers that rely almost exclusively on GPS?
- cobertos 2mo agoTrue, though the article does also mention another study not based on taxi drivers, but just living in high spatial complexity ZIP codes puts you at a lower risk. > Research on cognitive maps points toward the same conclusion as the study on taxi drivers. In 2023, researchers ran a machine learning model on more than 22,500 people in a national dataset and were able to predict which ZIP codes had higher rates of Alzheimer’s with 84% accuracy based on how complex the environment was. Those living in spatially complex surroundings – the kind that force active map building, such as dense street networks with numerous intersections, diverse points of interest and landmarks, and multiple path options – were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s.
- Palomides 2mo agoor there's a million confounding factors around people living in dense cities versus rural areas
- smolder 2mo agoI know an 80 year old who was a commercial truck driver for decades and still has a strong mental map for a pretty vast area. Anecdata, but I find it interesting.
- david-gpu 2mo agoA dense street network with complex intersections also means living in walkable urban cores vs car-centric suburbs.
- mattlondon 2mo agoI guessed the probably died in a car accident or of something related to pollution exposure or being sedentary their entire adult lives.
- philwelch 2mo agoI was going to make the same wisecrack, but in seriousness I assume they're counting elderly retired taxi drivers as taxi drivers even if they stopped working years before their deaths.
- chuckadams 2mo agoProbably. I was just being a smartass, really.
- lazyasciiart 2mo agoThey’re working off occupation as reported on death certificates, so they say they are assuming it’s still accurate.
- brikym 2mo agoMcDonnald's customers rarely die of anorexia
- hahahaa 2mo agoI hope the study included ex-taxi drivers using some threshold of years experience.