What if playing a mobile game could help scientists understand how our brains navigate? and potentially identify early signs of Alzhiemer's Disease?

In this episode, we sit down with computational neuroscientist Dr Emre Yavuz to explore the fascinating science of spatial navigation and its links to cognitive health.

Emre discusses how Sea Hero Quest, a mobile navigation game played by millions of people, has created an enormous dataset for researchers studying how humans find their way around the world. We explore what navigation performance can tell us about cognitive differences, including research looking at Alzheimer's-related risk factors, and why navigation may eventually become a useful behavioural marker for cognitive decline.

We also dive into the everyday things that might shape our navigation abilities. How does video gaming relate to navigation? Does relying on GPS actually make us worse at finding our way? What can driving independently at a young age tell us? And why might sleep duration affect navigation differently across men and women?

Then things get even more futuristic. Emre talks us through his research using mobile brain imaging to record two people's brains simultaneously while they collaborate in a virtual Minecraft environment. We discuss brain-to-brain synchrony, the role of the prefrontal cortex, social navigation, and what studying two brains at once could reveal about how we interact with other people.

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