For 90's kids and even kids today, Pokemon has been a big part of growing up. While Pokemon's popularity has fluctuated over the years, the franchise has seen countless video game releases, toys, anime seasons, movies, and more, with no signs of slowing down. It's safe to say many gamers play Pokemon as kids, and one study has shown that those that do actually have a "Pokemon region" in their brain.

The study, published in the scientific journal Nature Human Behavior and conducted by Jesse Gomez, Michael Barnett, and Kalanit Gril-Spector, featured 22 adults. 11 of the participants had experienced Pokemon as children, whereas the other 11 weren't all that familiar with the Pokemon franchise. Participants were first tested on Pokemon names, and were then shown pictures of the original 150 Pokemon alongside pictures of random things. Brain scans of the Pokemon experts showed that the occipitotemporal sulcus (which usually processes animal images) reacted more to the pictures of Pokemon, whereas those unfamiliar with Pokemon didn't have a similar reaction.

Now, it's important to note that this same effect could likely be achieved if someone was exposed to something else as a child like they were to Pokemon. However, the persistent popularity of Pokemon and its status as a worldwide phenomenon means that there are a significant portion of people who would likely have this "Pokemon region" of their brain.

adults who played pokemon have pokemon region of brain

To this day, Pokemon remains one of the world's most expansive and lucrative IPs. In 2016, it experienced a popularity boom not seen since its original release in the 90s, thanks to the augmented reality mobile game Pokemon GO. It's also set to have its first live-action film hit theaters in the form of Detective Pikachu, which has earned some of the strongest reviews of any video game movie in history.

With the Detective Pikachu movie hitting theaters soon and new video games coming later this year in the form of Pokemon Sword and Shield for the SwitchPokemon isn't going anywhere anytime soon. It's quite likely that the current generation of kids could grow up with the Pokemon region of the brain as well, or maybe their occipitotemporal sulcus will respond more to other games that are big with kids right now, like Fortnite.

Source: Nature Human Behavior (via The Verge)