Orienteering is a sport that combines navigation and cross-country running. Participants use a map and compass to navigate through a course in the shortest possible time., orienteering — a sport that combines athleticism, navigational skills, and memory — may serve as an effective intervention or preventive measure against cognitive decline related to dementia.
Kinesiologist Jennifer Heisz and graduate student Emma Waddington examined the sport of orienteering’s usefulness in fighting cognitive decline. Credit: Kayla Da Silva/McMaster Universitydisease, in which losing the ability to find one’s way is among the earliest symptoms, affecting half of all afflicted individuals, even in the mildest stage of the disease., researchers surveyed healthy adults, ranging in age from 18 to 87 with varying degrees of orienteering expertise .
Researchers at McMaster found participants in orienteering reported better spatial navigation and memory, suggesting the sport could be beneficial to fighting cognitive decline. Credit: Kayla Da Silva/McMaster University It is a skill which GPS systems have engineered out of modern life, say researchers. That may affect not only our ability to navigate but also affect our spatial processing and memory more generally because these cognitive functions rely on overlapping neural structures.