A special “Pokémon region” has been found in brains of adults that played Pokémon as kids. According to a journal published by Nature Human Behavior, researchers found that “Pokémon people” respond more to cartoon characters than to other non-cartoon pictures.
The study was conducted on 11 recruited adults who were experienced in the Pokémon culture. This meant that they began playing between the ages of five and eight, stopped for a while and began playing again as adults. The research was also conducted on 11 non-Pokémon fans.[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”The region which is called the occipitotemporal sulcus is used to process animal images of which, the Pokémon fans had extra activity show while the other novices, did not.” link=”” color=”#44f4ff” class=”” size=”25″][/perfectpullquote]
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The tests included participants naming the Pokémon displayed in front of them and a test that showed all 150 original Pokémon alongside other images of animals and other objects. In the “Pokémon people”, a specific region in their brain triggered a response more to the Pokémon pictures displayed in front of them compared to the other non-Pokémon images.
As for the other 11 people, there was no difference to be seen in their brain activity. The region which is called the occipitotemporal sulcus is used to process animal images of which, the Pokémon fans had extra activity show while the other novices, did not.
The tests proved that hours of Pokémon consumption as a kid could have led to brain changes and looking at the same thing for a long period of time will do the same thing. It showed that our brain adapts to specific images depending on the amount of time we have access to it. It also showed that our brain could be developing regions specifically for certain imagery over time.
According to Jesse Gomez, the theory called “eccentricity bias” suggests that it all depends on the size of the image and how we are seeing it which will trigger brain activity. Having access to Pokémon as a kid, and consuming it every day on a Game Boy, would be the perfect example of these developing brain regions and the activity response triggered by seeing the Pokémon.
