Adults Who Played Pokémon as Children Study

Science is amazing! Those words stood out to me and it’s funny that I have a chance to use those words now, in this context. Since the series creation; each Pokémon game has had a quote like this about technology or science. A single enthusiastic character in each entry to remind the player of this simple fact. It’s amazing then, that this long running series is now a frequent test subject for various studies across the world; one such study took place at Stanford University who last year concluded that adults who played Pokémon extensively as children have a brain region that responds positively to images of characters and events from the series.

Pokémon on the Brain

The study is quite interesting; the results were published online in the journal Nature Human Behaviour and were undergone to answer a number of questions related to why the brain reacts to certain stimuli such as words and faces but not other things such as cars.

One of the researchers, Jesse Gomez thought about his own experiences playing Pokemon Red and Blue as well as the positive experiences he associates with that experience at that crucial stage of development. Gomez theorised that if this period of childhood is critical for brain development, then adults who had similar experiences as a child should react positively to this kind of stimuli and was curious as to whether it would trigger these same parts of the brain despite being a very different kind of stimuli.

Gomez says “what was unique about Pokémon is that there are hundreds of characters, and you have to know everything about them in order to play the game successfully. The game rewards you for individuating hundreds of these little, similar-looking characters” and this is true. What’s more, is that as the series goes on, this becomes increasingly the case as the amount of characters, mechanics and information to process and store escalates. In fact, the hundred of characters he mentions are well over a thousand now if including human and Pokémon present in their series over the last two decades.

Conclusion

The study showed results consistent across test subjects. A brain fold called the occipitotemporal sulcus reacted consistently and positively to visual images from the series. This same region is the part of the brain that responds to images of animals.

The study shows that the brain takes in and internalises information from a young age and maintains that throughout life. Essentially, the brain adapts, it learns and takes in information beyond our biological constraints and gives space to that info.

Given the historical controversy of videogames; Gomez points out that the individuals tested all grew to be successful adults with PHDs. The study doesn’t show a detrimental effect on the brain, that isn’t the intention of the experiment, but actually quite the opposite when you think about it.

When attending the virtual Go Fest event, my happiness was clear on my face. Something my partner commented on at the time and responded to with smiles of her own. Anecdotally this is something that fans (past and present) have known for a while but it is pretty awesome seeing the benefits gained being researched and confirmed. It’s also nice to know that although a little older than those studied, there’s a little portion of my brain that will always respond positively to this.