Abstract
Grey matter volume in the posterior hippocampus of London taxi drivers is greater than in ageβmatched controls, and the size of this increase correlates positively with time spent taxi driving (E.A. Maguire et al., 2000. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 97: 4398β4403). This change suggests that increased posterior hippocampal grey matter volume is acquired in response to increased taxi driving experience, perhaps reflecting their detailed representation of the city. However, an alternate hypothesis is that the difference in hippocampal volume is instead associated with innate navigational expertise, leading to an increased likelihood of becoming a taxi driver. To investigate this possibility, we used structural brain imaging and voxelβbased morphometry (VBM) to examine a group of subjects who were not taxi drivers. Despite this group showing a wide range of navigational expertise, there was no association between expertise and posterior hippocampal grey matter volume (or, indeed, grey matter volume throughout the brain). This failure to find an association between hippocampal volume and navigational expertise thus suggests that structural differences in the human hippocampus reflect the detail and/or duration of use of the spatial representation acquired, and not innate navigational expertise per se. Hippocampus 2003;13:250β259. Β© 2003 WileyβLiss, Inc.