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Driving a Stick Shift Is Good for Your Brain, According to Nintendo’s Brain Training Professor
If you don’t have one, there are other ways to get the benefit
EXPERT OPINION BY MINDA ZETLIN, AUTHOR OF ‘CAREER SELF-CARE: FIND YOUR HAPPINESS, SUCCESS, AND FULFILLMENT AT WORK’ @MINDAZETLIN
Jul 7, 2026
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Can driving a car benefit your brain? Yes, if it has a manual transmission. That’s the surprising result of research at Japan’s Tohoku University’s Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer. Researchers examined subjects’ brain activity while driving automatic and manual transmission cars. They found that driving a stick shift gave subjects’ brains a useful workout in a way that driving an automatic did not
Ryuta Kawashima, MD professor in the Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer at Japan’s Tohoku University led the study. Kawashima is best known for helping to create Nintendo’s Brain Age and Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training games. He specializes in brain imaging, development of brain function, and dementia prevention
“Driving a [manual transmission] car activates the prefrontal cortex of the brain by requiring simultaneous clutch operation, gear shifting, accelerator control, and awareness of the surroundings,” the researchers wrote, according to Japan’s Best Car magazine. “Because you have to judge and select the optimal gear according to the situation, it puts a better load on the brain’s cognitive functions than a passive automatic transmission car.” The researchers found that regularly driving geared vehicles could have a significant effect on maintaining cognitive function.
What if you don’t have (or want) a stick shift?
This is all great information, but there’s one big problem. Almost no one drives a stick shift anymore. Only 0.7 percent of new cars sold in the United States have manual transmissions That number is on a downward trajectory that may accelerate as more people switch to electric vehicles, which need no gearing
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If your next care will be a gas car, should you consider making it a stick shift? There are actually some good reasons you might. Stick shifts are fun to drive and more fuel efficient than automatics. Still, most new car models aren’t available with a manual transmission, so this approach won’t be practical for everyone
But consider why driving a stick shift benefits your brain. It’s a matter of combining brain effort with physical coordination. Other brain research has found that when you put these two things together in one activity, it has very noticeable brain benefits. And there are other alternatives that might lead to that same effect
1. Ride a bike
The researchers recommended driving a “geared vehicle.” A bicycle is a geared vehicle that you likely already own, or could acquire inexpensively. Riding a 10-speed or even 3-speed bike will increase your fitness and may benefit your brain at the same time. (For your brain’s sake, though, do wear a helmet.)
