Hi and welcome back to my blog! This week, my post is going to be a bit different than recent posts. Today, I am talking about map memorization and our brain's cognition of space.. This topic is definitely less philosophical than my recent posts, but it is nonetheless intriguing (to me at least). I am hoping to keep this post short and sweet, so let's jump right in. A fun fact about me is that I know not only the fifty states and capitals of the US but also every country of the world, including their capitals and flags (kinda unrelated but still geographically focused). Furthermore, memorizing maps is actually what spurred my interest in cartography and what made me decide to write this blog. Once I realized my aptitude for spatial memorization, I became extremely curious about how maps work in our society. So, let's start with some background information regarding the human brain and spatial orientation. Some people say that they are horrible with directions, and while that may be true to some degree, everyone has an innate ability to navigate the world. Think about your house for example. If you are up in the middle of the night and it is dark, are you able to navigate through your house without turning on a light? Sure, you might step on a stray object lying around, but chances are you won't run into any walls. However, if you were to do the same thing in a stranger's house, you probably would run into some walls or at least walk much slower to find your way around. This is spatial orientation at its finest. You may be asking yourself, how can my brain do this? Well, a group of scientists actually won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014 for answering this question. John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser, and Edvard I. Moser discovered different types of nerve cells in the brain that we use as an "inner GPS" to navigate the world around us. In 1971, O'Keefe discovered nerve cells in a region of the brain known as the hippocampus that become activated when we are in a certain place, also known as "place cells". Later in 2005, May-Britt and Edvard Moser discovered "grid cells" that allow the brain to position itself through specific coordinates that these cells generate. Together, these cells allow our brains to create maps within our minds of the world. Additionally, as mentioned above, the hippocampus is an integral part of this process, but there are other regions involved, as shown in the diagram below. I know that this information may seem negligible when discussing maps of the world because no human has ever seen every part of the globe or will have to navigate it in this capacity. However, these mechanisms are important when considering spatial memory— an essential aspect of memorizing maps. Now that you have a general understanding of the process of spatial memorization in the brain, I'm going to explain the process that I used to memorize the map of the world. I am not going to lie and say it was easy, but it is definitely possible with enough effort. Also, just to prove that I actually know both the countries and their capital cities, here are the results of two online quizzes that I took recently. While it may seem daunting to memorize 196 countries and capitals, I actually find it easier than memorizing vocabulary or random facts. Unlike words, you can actually picture the map in your head and connect the names to a concrete location in the world, which I found extremely useful in the memorization process. Now, whenever I need to think of the location of a specific country, all I have to do is picture the map of the world in my head and zero in on said country. So here are the general steps I took on this journey of memorization:
I hope that you enjoyed this blog post. While this was definitely more laid back than my previous posts, it is arguably more practical in the real world. If you have read my previous blog posts, you will know that there is definitely something to be said about the common representation of the world through maps, but it is still fun to test your mind in new ways. Be on the lookout for my next blog post, which will be discussing maps across different disciplines.
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