Hey there!
I’m Alie Astrocyte.
And this week on Neuro Transmi..
Uh, Alie?
There's actually a Pokemon right here.
Right here? Where?
Open up your phone
Okay where is it?
Turn a little... right there.
Oh!
It’s a Pidgey!
As I was saying...welcome back to Neuro Transmissions.
You’ve probably already guessed it, but this week, I want to talk about why everyone
- myself included - is so dang obsessed with Pokemon GO.
Why do we gotta catch em all?
If you’re not playing Pokemon GO, then you’ve almost definitely heard of it.
And if somehow you haven’t heard of it, you’ve probably seen people playing it,
wandering in packs around unfamiliar neighborhoods with their phones in their hands.
This ground-breaking game combines augmented reality or “AR” technology with the GPS
in your smartphone to let you find and “catch” Pokemon as you navigate in the real world.
Then you can use those pocket monsters to battle at gyms and become the greatest Pokemon
Master of them all.
With an estimated 75 million downloads - and counting!
- Pokemon GO can be considered the most successful mobile game ever created.
So how did this game become so massively popular in such a short amount of time?
And why can’t people stop playing?
There are a couple of things that make Pokemon GO different from other video games.
It’s the perfect storm of nostalgia from childhood, social bonding, and exercise - and
all of those things are really good for our brains.
Many of the people obsessed with Pokemon GO are people who have been playing the game,
either on GameBoy or with cards, for years - so the new smartphone app makes them feel
nostalgic.
Nostalgia is sometimes seen as a sad emotion, like wishing you could go back to a particular
time period or event, but it’s actually psychologically rewarding.
It boosts self-esteem and helps individuals feel a renewed sense of purpose in their life,
letting them contextualize their current situation with their past.
Recalling happy memories can restore optimism - basically, people are excited because they
can look forward to making more happy memories in the future!
And since nostalgia is often focused on recalling social experiences, it boosts feelings of
social connectedness - another big part of Pokemon GO’s appeal.
Pokemon GO gets you out of the house, often with friends or at least friendly strangers,
to catch Pokemon and visit new Pokestops.
This combines social bonding with exercise - both of which cause your brain to release
chemicals that make you feel good!
Oxytocin, the “trust” hormone, and its relative vassopressin are released during
social bonding behaviors.
These hormones make us feel relaxed and comfortable with the people we’re with, enforcing friendships.
At the same time, exercise lowers blood levels of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline
- and releases endorphins, which act as natural painkillers and improve your mood.
So all of these things that you experience while playing Pokemon GO - nostalgia, socialization,
and exercise - make you feel good.
And your brain likes it when you feel good!
Which brings us to the last, key part of what’s making Pokemon GO so successful - and so addictive:
it’s super rewarding!
On top of making us feel good, the game actually rewards you for your efforts - you
discover new Pokemon, collect more Pokeballs and potions, level up, and win gym battles.
The major brain pathway that deals with reward is the mesolimbic dopamine system.
This is a circuit that links the ventral tegmental area, or VTA, to the nucleus accumbens.
In response to a rewarding stimulus, the VTA sends neurons that release dopamine to synapse
in the nucleus accumbens, which then mediates the response to that reward.
This circuit is also connected to memory systems, like the hippocampus and amygdala, as well
as the decision-making frontal cortex.
Acting together, activation of the pathway tells the individual that something was rewarding
- the memory systems will remember what the stimulus was, and the frontal cortex decides
whether or not the individual should seek out that reward again.
So even though the rewards in Pokemon GO are digital, not physical, our brains still find
them rewarding.
And we keep playing, because we want to keep getting those rewards - and the game is set
up so you never know what to expect, which keeps you guessing and always excited to find
another Pokemon.
...Unless it’s a Pidgey. Stupid Pidgeys.
Thanks for watching this episode of Neuro Transmissions!
If you liked it, we hope you “choose us” by hitting subscribe to “catch” our next video
If you think we’re the “very best”, please consider contributing to our Patreon.
We appreciate your support, so we can keep making videos about our favorite nerdy hobbies.
Until next time, I’m Alie Astrocyte “blasting off again”!