Always losing your way? Psychologists investigate topographical disorientation at festival

Article excerpt

Psychologists from Leiden University are using the Lowlands music festival as a real-world laboratory to study Developmental Topographical Disorientation (DTD), a condition that makes some people chronically unable to navigate even familiar places. The researchers have set up at the festival, which they call "the ideal place to study getting lost", to investigate this relatively obscure neurological quirk. People with DTD struggle with spatial memory and wayfinding despite normal vision and cognition. The study could help distinguish between those who are simply directionally challenged and those with an underlying neurological condition that affects how the brain processes spatial information.