No Sense of Direction? Blame Mom and Dad

Study sees a genetic link to poor navigation skills
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 4, 2010 5:05 PM CST
No Sense of Direction? Blame Mom and Dad
A bad sense of direction may be in the genes.   (Shutter Stock)

People who are forever getting lost might be able to blame their genes, thanks to a new study that suggests a genetic link to having a lousy sense of direction. Researchers discovered that people with the rare condition known as Williams syndrome—caused by damage to a particular chromosome—have difficulty reorienting themselves.

That's not to say that everyone with poor navigation skills has the syndrome, only that there's probably something going on that's deeper than being absent-minded about surroundings. "Now we know that, in general, genes can be deleted and we could see this impairment of orientation," says one researcher. MSNBC's The Body Odd blog has the full story here.
(More directions stories.)

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