One of Japan’s most famous researchers on the human brain has declared that driving a car with a manual transmission can help keep your brain health up. Apparently the extra thought required to coordinate between your four limbs while you drive can help prevent dementia. The best part is, it doesn’t need to be a fancy sports car. Even a stickshift kei van will do.
As reported by Best Car, the research comes from Dr Ryuta Kawashima of Tohoku University. Those who played Nintendo DS may remember him as the face of Brain Age, a series of mind-training mini-games.
Sadly, manual transmission vehicles account for only 1-2 percent of total new car sales in Japan. Still, that’s better than the US, where the MT take rate is less than one percent.
According to Dr Kawashima, there are three main points that explain why rowing your own gears is better for your gray matter (translated via Google):
- Driving a manual transmission vehicle activates the prefrontal cortex of the brain by requiring the driver to simultaneously operate the clutch, shift gears, control the accelerator, and monitor the surrounding environment
- Moderate tension and decision-making: Since drivers must independently judge and select the optimal gear based on the situation, this places a more beneficial cognitive load on the brain than driving a passive automatic transmission (AT) vehicle.
- Regularly driving vehicles with manual transmissions—such as motorcycles or manual cars—as a hobby has a significant positive effect on mental health and the maintenance of cognitive function
In other words, not only does it exercise your brain when it’d otherwise be less involved with an automatic transmission, it’s also fun. And that’s not even getting into other benefits, like greater car control, the ability to bump start the car if your battery dies, and natural theft deterrent. We don’t think most JNCers needed another reason to drive a stick, but this could be the best case yet.
We all knew it was true. I have been driving a manual since 1992.
Sir… this is a crochet forum.
Driving slow or fast with a manual transmission, your brain is always working. When I get tired or zone out, the car stalls/shifts bad. If I’m driving on unfamiliar roads, I have to turn off the radio to fully concentrate, not stall, and not get lost. Driving manual every day is probably one of the reasons I don’t feel my age (feel younger).
Hopefully you won’t need a clutch knee replacement along the way 🙂
Save the manuals! Save the old folks!
Well, 2 of my cars are manual. Unfortunately, I drive my wife’s automatic Pilot or my automatic xA more often…well, at least for half the year.
But the last 2 days I’ve driven the two manuals…the 5-speed on Monday & the 6-speed today.
And no, I didn’t try to put the 6-speed into 6th gear instead of reverse when I was backing out of the garage…oh wait, I did. Perhaps a sign that I need to drive them more often to stave off the dementia?
I bought my 1st automatic DD when I turned 60. I still have 2 sticks. I don’t know about the dementia but I think it helps my mind be engaged in the task of actually driving versus a Tesla on FSD. Sadly, my current DD is an automatic. If the new Prius came with a stick, I would have bought it. I love driving absolutely ANYTHING.
Only stick shift for me, nothing else unless driving my wife’s cube. My kids know that as well, and with my older getting close to obtaining a driver’s license, she knows she needs to continue polishing her manual skills, or else it’s taking the bus or biking.
I recently came back from a Scout camping trip up in northern Maine wilderness, and had a lot of time to chat with the scouts during the drive back. Even though they’re not car enthusiasts like us JNCers, they shared that they want to drive manual because they find that added involvement to be mechanically fulfilling. Last night I was taking my daughter and her friends to a fair and through my rear view I could see the backseat passengers watching me go through the gears with undivided attention.
There’s hope for the future generations, as ours have become too fixated on driving autonomy.
I drive a half manual with an automated gear shifter (smart roadster). So I will suffer only from mild dementia. 🙂