The Sciene of Pokémon
The Science of Pokémon
Pokémon is responsible for some of the most recognisable figures of our time. Some of my earliest memories are of me and my friends pretending to be Pokémon in our backyard, or hanging out together and trading some exclusive evolutions. I know I am not alone in this, as Pokémon is consistently mentioned as being (one of) the highest grossing media franchises ever. The simple mechanics and interesting designs rarely fail to appeal to both the young and older demographic. Being such an intergenerational powerhouse, it is no wonder that some Pokémon related topics have snuck their way into scientific research. In a hope to pique your interest, we will look at some examples today:
Pokémon on the Brain
The first scientific finding inspired this whole blogpost. In a paper published in 2019, Jesse Gomez and colleagues tested several people, some with extensive experience playing Pokémon, and others with no experience. Both groups were put in an fMRI scanner, and shown several stimuli, ranging from objects, to faces, to Pokémon. In this experiment, they observed that we have a ‘Pokémon Region’ within our brains. This region is located within the area responsible for the central part of your vision. According to the authors, these findings may help shape theories of brain organisation, especially in the development from child into adulthood. How is that for a ‘Future Sight’?
Who’s that Species?
As Pokémon’s official slogan is ‘Gotta catch them all!’, it is no wonder that some enthusiasts went beyond the game and discovered new species in real life. There is a list of 16 real life species with names related to Pokémon (some intentional, some not), on Bulbapedia. If you made it this far into the article, I highly encourage you to look it up if you have the time. Here are some of my favourites: The Chilicola Charizard is a bee that was named after the fiery dragon. The full evolution line of Treecko, Grovyle, and Sceptile has been discovered in real life, though they turned out to be spiders this time. And finally, perhaps unsurprisingly, Pikachu has four different species named after it, two spiders, a springtail, and a beetle.
Pokémon Go For A Walk!
Pokémon Go was perhaps the most revolutionary of the franchises’ games. When it released, it caused stampedes of people to run from spot to spot, trying to ‘Catch Them All’. One of the main goals of the augmented reality game, was to get hardcore gamers to go outside and get some exercise. This immediately sparked several studies to determine the effectiveness of such a game. In a literature review by Khamzina and colleagues, they synthesized the results of 17 of these studies. They determined that Pokémon Go was, in fact, super effective in reaching this goal. Users seemed to increase their step count by an average of around 1.466 per day. Pokémon GO players were also found to have a decrease in sedentary behaviour. However, one of its main challenges was maintaining the positive effects in the long run.
I hope you enjoyed the stories about Pokémon in science. If there is anything I hope you take away from this blogpost, it is to look up some of your interests on scientific search engines. Investigating this has been a lot of fun, so I highly encourage you to do the same!
