India, June 29 -- A large number of automobile enthusiasts still love manual gearboxes, despite the rising penetration of automatic transmission. According to a study, petrolheads who pour their energy into saving the manual transmission should continue to do so if they want to give their ageing brain a daily workout. A Japanese study has revealed that driving a manual gearbox-equipped car stimulates the prefrontal cortex, which automatics don't do. In a nutshell, driving a manual car can actually result in better health of the driver's brain.

The research done by Professor Ryuta Kawashima, who runs neuroimaging work at Tohoku University's Institute of Development, Ageing, and Cancer, has found that the physical sequence of driving a man...