30 minutes of Super Mario 64 daily for two months grew players' brain grey matter, 2014 study found

WhatTheLJW · x · 2026-09-16

A 2014 study in Molecular Psychiatry found that playing Super Mario 64 physically changed the brain.

• Simone Kühn at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin gave 23 adults a Nintendo DS and had them play Super Mario 64 at least 30 minutes a day for two months, with a no-game control group
• Before/after MRI scans showed measurable grey-matter increases in three regions — including the right hippocampus and right prefrontal cortex — tied to memory, planning, and fine motor control
• The poster calls gaming one of the dumbest things to fade: "literally something for everyone"

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