23/09/2026
🧠 Can playing Go for a lifetime actually change your brain?
A study from Seoul National University compared 29 older professional Go players with 50 people who didn’t play professionally.
The Go players had a 17% larger right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), better working memory, and stronger connections between several brain networks.
But there’s an important question:
⚫⚪🧠 Did playing Go for decades change their brains, or were people with certain brain traits simply more likely to become strong players?
Because this was a cross-sectional study, we don’t know yet.
Still, it’s fascinating to think that a lifetime on the Go board may leave traces not only in our playing ability, but also in our brains. 🧠🤓
Reference: "Expertise-related right frontal structural differences in older professional Go players: network and inter-hemispheric covariance analyses": https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811926005057
