Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer’s – how complex mental maps and spatial reasoning protect your brain

Figuring out a circuitous route between point A to point B can strengthen your brain. justhavealook/iStock via Getty Images Plus Taxi and ambulance drivers are less likely than workers in almost any other job to die of Alzheimer’s disease. That was the surprising result of a 2024 study examining the death certificates of nearly 9 million people in the U.S. These findings stopped me in my tracks because those two jobs rely on the same thing as my own work: maps. I have spent more than two…