眾所周知，愛因斯坦的大腦與一般人不同,；如果說的哥的大腦也和你不一樣,，你信嗎？然而英國倫敦的出租車司機可能和我們其他人真的都不一樣,。
研究人員在10多年前便已知道,，那些出租車司機中的精英們——他們經(jīng)過長期的訓練而掌握了一門絕技：由25000條街道構成的心理地圖——擁有一個大于平均值的后海馬，這一大腦區(qū)域與認知及導航有關,。
而科學家所不知道的是,，這些出租車司機是經(jīng)過訓練才形成了更大的海馬,，抑或他們的這一大腦區(qū)域在一開始就很大——因而具有先天的導航優(yōu)勢。
因此一個研究小組在4年的時間里,，對3個受試組進行了跟蹤調查——一組是成功獲得了“絕技”并成為出租車司機的學員,，一組是不具備從業(yè)資格的學員，最后的對照組則是非出租車司機,。
研究人員對受試者進行了測試,，并在訓練之前、過程中以及結束后對他們的大腦進行了掃描,。
研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn),，在開始訓練之前，具有從業(yè)資格的學員的大腦與那些沒有從業(yè)資格的學員,、或非出租車司機的大腦并沒有差別,。
然而隨著出租車司機掌握了更多的信息，他們的海馬區(qū)也在不斷增大,，并逐漸改變了他們的大腦,。
英國倫敦大學學院的神經(jīng)學家Katherine Woollett和Eleanor A. Maguire在12月8日的《當代生物學》雜志網(wǎng)絡版上報告了這一研究成果。
而不成功的學員的大腦海馬區(qū)從始至終都是相同的大小,，這可能意味著,，成功的出租車司機真的擁有一種與生俱來的優(yōu)勢——他們的大腦比別人具有更大的可塑性。（生物谷Bioon.com）
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doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.11.018
PMC:
PMID:
Acquiring the Knowledge of London's Layout Drives Structural Brain Changes
Katherine Woollett, Eleanor A. Maguire
The last decade has seen a burgeoning of reports associating brain structure with specific skills and traits (e.g., [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]). Although these cross-sectional studies are informative, cause and effect are impossible to establish without longitudinal investigation of the same individuals before and after an intervention. Several longitudinal studies have been conducted (e.g., [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]); some involved children or young adults, potentially conflating brain development with learning, most were restricted to the motor domain, and all concerned relatively short timescales (weeks or months). Here, by contrast, we utilized a unique opportunity to study average-IQ adults operating in the real world as they learned, over four years, the complex layout of London's streets while training to become licensed taxi drivers. In those who qualified, acquisition of an internal spatial representation of London was associated with a selective increase in gray matter (GM) volume in their posterior hippocampi and concomitant changes to their memory profile. No structural brain changes were observed in trainees who failed to qualify or control participants. We conclude that specific, enduring, structural brain changes in adult humans can be induced by biologically relevant behaviors engaging higher cognitive functions such as spatial memory, with significance for the nature versus nurture debate.
