Design
How to Make a Better Map—Using Neuroscience
These three cartographers are applying advances in brain science and cognitive psychology to their work.
The neuroscience of navigation has been big news lately. In September, Nobel Prizes went to the discoverers of place cells and grid cells, the neurons responsible for our mental maps and inner GPS. That's on top of an ever-growing pile of fMRI research, where scientists connect regions of the brain to specific navigation processes.
But the more we learn about how our bodies steer from A to B, are cartographers and geographers listening up? Is the science of wayfinding finding its way into the actual maps we use?