London Taxi Drivers Lose Other Skills

London taxi drivers are required to memorize the 25,000 streets and 20,000 landmarks within six miles of Charing Cross. A study was recently done showing that over the four years of taxi training more grey matter appears at the front of the hippocampus, but the rear of the hippocampus is smaller than average. However, with the smaller rear part, they have trouble remembering other spatial things, like where their keys are. Those people that did not pass the taxi exam did not show this change in their hippocampus, suggesting that some people are genetically predisposed to this kind of learning while others are not.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/science/biology/article3252243.ece