Study: lost people really do walk in circles

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE57J4I620090820

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Ever got lost and felt you were going round in circles? You probably were, with a German study finding people do cover the same ground over and over when they don't have reliable direction cues.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tubingen, Germany, have presented the first empirical evidence that people do end up walking in circles if lost in unfamiliar terrain.

The study, published in the journal Current Biology, examined the trajectories of people who walked for several hours in the Sahara desert in Tunisia and in the Bienwald forest in Germany.

Researchers Jan Souman and Marc Ernst said the scientists used the global positioning system (GPS) to record these paths.

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longer than the other which would cause one to walk in a large circle when visual clues make it hard to go in a straighter line.

No one knows why, but if any animal starts to move AND has no bearings (for various reasons) you end up in the clockwise circle. When this was applied to Humans it was believed this was do to the fact most people are right handed and the right leg this being stronger or longer, but that was disproved in various experiments in the 1960s (Chimpanzee and other primates do NOT have a tendency to be right to left handed, it is more a Human Characteristics then an primate or animal characteristic).

Now the above is based on what I have read in the past on this subject (I did a quick search on google and could not find anything to support what I am saying). Thus I am doing this from memory, the actual direction clockwise or counterclockwise was NOT the issue in the article I read, but that ALL animals went in a Circle in the same direction. Left handedness or right handiness was NOT a factor. Strength of one leg or another was also NOT a factor. The report was that all animals, where NOTHING exist to restrict their movement OR guide their movements animals go in a circle in the same direction. No one knew why, the various explanations given over the years (Right handiness, strong legs etc) do NOT appear to be a factor. It appears to be hard wired into the brain (But can be overridden IF an override is desired or otherwise needed i.e. to avoid a predator).

The article I read just reported the results, it did NOT speculate on why except to rule out right-handiness AND stronger limb theories. Could be the inner ear, could be deeper. What I have read have NOT indicated WHY, just reported that animals go in circles.

One of the chief difference between Mammals and birds (Beside Feathers vs fur, Milk vs eggs, etc) is that in Mammals the largest area of the brain (The part we think with) is an expansion of the HEARING part of the brain. In Birds it is the expansion of the part of the brain tied in with SIGHT. I bring with up for birds appear to go in the small direction as Mammals but the brain is structured radically different, so the reason may be deep down in the brain.

diapsid (two hole heads) reptiles ancestor of Crocodiles, Modern Reptiles, Dinosaurs and Birds

synapsids (one hole) Reptiles Ancestor of Mammals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synapsid

Diapsid and Synapsid separated 324 million years ago, to give an idea on how DEEP this motion may be (yes, predates the Dinosaurs).

I was lost in a thick woods. Tried to do the right thing and go in a straight line by sighting on trees ahead of me.

Three times I ended up back in a clearing with a huge stump. The same stupid stump.

Funny now, but scary at the time.

The fact people will go in circle has been know for Centuries. A compass gives people a reference point to avoid such errors (i.e. go in direction of compass NOT how you want to go). The key is using the Compass to determine your direction to a set point, then do it all over again to the next point. Thus you move in a straight line along the points indicated by the compass.

the right way to go. or a possible way to go. they will do many different circles until they find the way or give up.

Real basic boy scout stuff.

They had us put a paper bag on our heads and walk out into a field. We were supposed to walk out several hundred steps toward a target at the other side of the field. Every single person ended up almost 90 degrees away from the target.


My buddy and I had been navigating by compass in the dark to find where we were going to hunt for the day. He pulled out his flashlight that has a built in crank charger. We started getting crazy compass readings. Walking around in total darkness and our compass was spinning. The flashlight had a magnet as part of the charging system.

Without a clear objective, we keep repeating ourselves.

--d!

almost everywhere, but the fact is I'd rather have them and not need them than have to rely on my bare hands and luck to survive.

Besides, you'd be surprised how much these items help in the city too.

I only needed to walk straight for about 200', but I ended up off track almost immediately. I wonder if people have a tendency to avoid obstacles in the same direction (e.g. mostly going around a dense thicket to the left) which adds up to a big turn...

This is why I always have a basic survival kit on any real hike, but I also tend to hike in areas with pronounced visual clues (it's hard to go in a circle when you have a cliff on both sides and a peak behind you... :)

Maybe there's an innate sense of "going back to where you were", or at least staying within a certaon radius of where you were :shrug:

When one of us gets separated from the tribe, it doesn't surprise me that we split the difference, remaining in the general area, but widening our search pattern.