Do London cabbies have remarkable brains?

“London cabbies have remarkable brains,” said Hugo Spiers, a professor of cognitive neuroscience who is leading the study with several graduate students. “Specifically, their brains' are larger in a region that shrinks early in Alzheimer's disease — the hippocampus.”



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London taxi drivers are licensed and must have passed an extensive training course (the Knowledge). Unlike many other cities, the number of taxicab drivers in London is not limited.

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And a cab driver in London is required to know the quickest way off by heart. That is because they know the center of the British capital; they'll have committed 320 runs across 25,000 streets, encompassing at least 20,000 landmarks, to memory.

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Introduced in the mid 19th Century, The Knowledge requires drivers to memorise 25,000 streets and 100,000 landmarks within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross. Successful applicants have to pass up to a dozen interviews with the entire process taking up to four years.

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As a taxi driver you'll spend many hours of your day sitting behind the wheel, and this can cause a lot of stress on your body. Regular physical activity helps reduce the effects of stress by: Encouraging the release of 'feel good' endorphins.

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Taxi Driver is a 1976 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks.

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Drivers who own their cabs as opposed to renting from a garage are known as mushers and those who have just passed the knowledge are known as butter boys. There are currently around 21,000 black cabs in London, licensed by the Public Carriage Office.

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In order to become a licensed London taxi driver, you must pass the difficult and gruelling Knowledge test, of which there is a 70% drop out rate and for which there are no study materials. In order to apply for the Knowledge, you must be: At least 18 years old (you cannot receive your license until you are 21)

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Tipping taxi drivers It is polite to tip 10 to 15% of the taxi fare for black cabs and licensed minicabs in London. However, most people simply round up the fare to the nearest £1 and tell the driver to keep the change.

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In other words, taxi drivers had plumper memory centers than their peers. It seemed that the longer someone had been driving a taxi, the larger his hippocampus, as though the brain expanded to accommodate the cognitive demands of navigating London's streets.

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A taxicab-driver must learn these routes, as well as the points of interest along and within 1/2 mile (0.80 km) of each end of those routes including streets, squares, clubs, hospitals, hotels, theatres, embassies, government and public buildings, railway stations, police stations, courts, diplomatic buildings, ...

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That is because they know the center of the British capital; they'll have committed 320 runs across 25,000 streets, encompassing at least 20,000 landmarks, to memory.

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Ridership is solid, and the number of drivers has declined in recent years. Before the pandemic, there were about 22,500 drivers of London's iconic black cabs, though at last count in March, their ranks had shrunk by about 3,000.

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