At a Bloomington, Ind., toy store, kids ages 8 to 12 gather
weekly to trade Pokemon cards and share their mutual absorption in the intrigue
and adventure of Pokemon.
This may seem an unlikely source of material to test
theories in cognitive neuroscience. But that is where Indiana University brain
scientists Karin Harman James and Tom James were when an idea took hold.
"We were down at the club with our son, watching the
way the kids talked about the cards, and noticed it was bigger than just a
trading game," Tom James said.