Why Your Brain Loves Mahjong

For a long time, scientists believed that once we reached adulthood, our brains were pretty much set. Sure, we could learn new facts, but the brain itself wasn't thought to change very much.

We now know that's not true.

Turns out that our brains retain something called neuroplasticity, the ability to change and adapt in response to new experiences and learning. Researchers have documented measurable structural changes in adult brains associated with learning.

In other words, your brain isn't finished. It can always grow, evolve and, like a muscle, get stronger.

But here's the catch: we have to give it something to do.

Your Brain Likes a Challenge

As adults, we're very good at doing things we already know how to do.

We drive familiar routes. We do work we're experienced at doing. We make the recipes we've made a hundred times. Even much of our entertainment asks very little of us cognitively.

Learning something genuinely new is different.

It forces the brain to pay attention, form new associations, remember unfamiliar information, recognize patterns and adjust when something doesn't work.

Which brings us to mahjong.

When you first learn American mahjong, almost everything is unfamiliar. The tiles. The card. The Charleston. The language. The rules and then the exceptions to the rules.

Your brain has to work to make sense of it all.

And then, with practice, what once looked like a completely random collection of tiles starts to look like information. You spot patterns. You recognize combinations. You remember rules you once had to look up.

These are the kinds of challenges your brain loves.

Mahjong Doesn't Let Your Brain Coast

Even after you've learned the basics, the challenge doesn't disappear because every hand is different.

You have to evaluate your tiles, scan the card for possibilities, remember what's been discarded, notice what other players are exposing and change course when the hand you planned to play stops making sense.

That requires attention, memory, pattern recognition, decision-making and cognitive flexibility.

And researchers are beginning to look specifically at mahjong.

A recent review examined 53 studies involving older adults and mahjong. Overall, observational studies associated more mahjong experience with better cognitive, psychological and functional abilities. Intervention studies have also reported improvements in areas including general cognition, short-term memory and executive function.

The researchers are careful to point out that more research is needed and cautions that mahjong isn't a magic shield against cognitive decline. But the findings are certainly intriguing.

Yes, mahjong gives us a reason to gather around a table with friends. It's fun, social and occasionally maddening.

But it's also something increasingly rare in adult life: the chance to be a beginner, challenge your brain, and keep learning something you may never completely master.

Turns out, your brain may appreciate that almost as much as you do.