They’re Just Everywhere Now

A recent scientific study revealed that certain peoples’ brains develop a ‘pokemon region’ over a long period of time. If you played the game as a kid, you just might have developed this part of the brain yourself. The question then becomes, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Also, will this lead to me getting psychic powers?

The bad news is that neither I nor anyone else is getting telekinesis anytime soon. The good news is that this pokemon region has helped us learn how the brain organizes visual information. Basically, two groups of people were shown a series of images after differing levels of exposure to the original pokedex. Turns out playing pokemon as a kid changes how you process their images as an adult.

The actual name for the region of the brain in question is, um… the occipitotemporal sulcus. The ten-cent takeaway from this study is two-fold: first, playing games as a kid isn’t automatically bad for you, it just changes things slightly. Second, Pokemon are just friggin’ everywhere. That includes the deepest recesses of players’ brains. Some day, scientists may use those adorable little goons to advance medical science by leaps and bounds.

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