“Travel is one of the few activities that exercises the body, stimulates the brain, enriches the spirit, and creates memories that endure long after the journey has ended. Every unfamiliar destination is an invitation for the mind to grow stronger.” – MJ Martin
Introduction
Canada is experiencing one of the most profound demographic shifts in its history. As our population ages, dementia has become one of the nation’s greatest public health challenges. More than 770,000 Canadians are currently living with dementia, and that number is expected to rise substantially over the coming decades. While no single activity can prevent dementia, an expanding body of neuroscience research suggests that lifelong learning, physical activity, social engagement, and even travel may contribute to maintaining cognitive health. Researchers and science communicators, including Neal K. Shah, have highlighted evidence that travel stimulates multiple regions of the brain simultaneously, potentially strengthening what neuroscientists call cognitive reserve.
The Brain Thrives on Novelty
Imagine the brain as a vast network of roads. The more frequently a route is travelled, the smoother it becomes. However, when we encounter new places, unfamiliar languages, different cultures, and unexpected situations, the brain is forced to construct entirely new pathways. These experiences recruit the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for memory formation and spatial navigation.
Modern brain imaging demonstrates that the hippocampus continually evaluates what is familiar and what is new. Novel environments stimulate neural activity associated with learning and memory formation. Since deterioration of the hippocampus is one of the earliest characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease, activities that challenge this region may help preserve its function over time.
Travel is Exercise for the Mind
Physical exercise is often described as medicine for the body. Travel may be viewed in much the same way for the brain.
Planning itineraries, navigating airports, reading maps, communicating with strangers, managing schedules, and adapting to unexpected circumstances all require complex cognitive processing. Unlike solving a crossword puzzle, travel combines memory, attention, decision making, emotional regulation, and physical movement into one integrated experience.
Researchers have proposed that tourism itself may represent an important non pharmaceutical intervention capable of improving quality of life for people living with early dementia by increasing enjoyment, reducing isolation, and stimulating multiple cognitive systems simultaneously.
A Canadian Perspective
Canada has become an international leader in research examining dementia friendly travel. Researchers at the University of Ottawa are studying how airports, transportation systems, and tourism infrastructure can better accommodate people living with dementia. The Alzheimer Society of Canada and Brain Canada have also brought together experts to discuss practical travel strategies for individuals and caregivers, recognizing that maintaining independence often includes the ability to continue travelling safely.
This research represents an important shift in thinking. Rather than assuming dementia means the end of travel, Canadian researchers are asking how transportation systems themselves can adapt to support an aging population.
Looking Ahead
Virtual reality may eventually extend many of these benefits to individuals who can no longer travel physically. Recent research suggests that immersive virtual travel experiences may improve mood, reduce behavioural symptoms, and recreate meaningful memories for people living with dementia. While these technologies cannot replace real experiences, they demonstrate how neuroscience, tourism, and technology are beginning to intersect in innovative ways.
Summary
Travel should not be viewed as a cure for dementia, nor should it replace established medical advice. However, it appears increasingly likely that a lifetime of exploration contributes to building a more resilient brain. Every unfamiliar street walked, every museum visited, every conversation with a stranger, and every map unfolded represents another opportunity for the brain to learn and adapt.
Canada’s aging population raises important questions that extend beyond medicine alone. Should municipalities become more dementia friendly for visitors? Should Canadian seniors be encouraged to travel earlier and more often? Can retirement planning include cognitive enrichment alongside financial security? And perhaps the most intriguing question of all is this: if the brain truly thrives on novelty, are we doing enough throughout our lives to keep discovering new places, new ideas, and new ways of thinking?
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin in a volunteer, a photographer, a learner, a technologist, a philosophizer, and a romantic optimist.