What brain waves reveal about people who can solve a Rubik’s Cube in seconds

A recent study published in Experimental Brain Research provides evidence that elite Rubik’s Cube solvers use the exact same brain patterns to mentally plan their moves as they do to physically execute them. This research suggests that highly trained experts mentally solve the entire puzzle before even touching it. These findings help explain how the human brain adapts to handle complex tasks that require intense thinking and fast physical movement at the same time.

Humans generally struggle to perform difficult mental calculations while executing precise physical movements. For example, a person texting on a smartphone tends to walk much slower because the brain cannot easily dedicate its full capacity to both thinking and moving at the exact same time.

Solving a Rubik’s Cube is an incredibly demanding activity. It requires a person to analyze color patterns, memorize those patterns, and predict how the puzzle will look multiple steps into the future. But professional speed-cubers can complete this puzzle in a matter of seconds.

“We humans can use our brains to perform difficult actions. We control refined movements and we can also make complex calculations or associations in our brains,” said study author Anderson Souza Oliveira, an associate professor in biomechanics at Aalborg University.

“However, when we need to think and move at the same time, we usually cannot be so good at both things. You for sure have seen a person texting on a smartphone while walking, and usually the person walks slower than usual, or if the person walks close to normal speed, the texting speed is reduced. This happens because our brains cannot dedicate full capacity to both moving and thinking simultaneously.”

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“Solving a Rubik’s is a very difficult task, since we need to analyze color patterns, memorize these patterns and predict how the patterns will look in the future in one or several moves. When a Rubik’s cube player is stuck and doesn’t move the pieces, the person is thinking really hard about what to do. Rubik’s cube athletes can finish the puzzle in less than one minute, so their brains must work differently as they can evaluate and move the pieces simultaneously – and really fast.”

This extreme speed suggests that expert brains adapt to evaluate information and physically move puzzle pieces simultaneously. Understanding the brain activity behind this expertise might reveal broad principles about how humans acquire new skills.

To study this process, the researchers recruited 13 healthy young male adults who were experienced speed-cubers. These participants had an average age of 23 and could solve a Rubik’s Cube in an average of 17 seconds.

The scientists attached special caps with sensors to the participants’ heads to record their brain waves. This recording technique is called electroencephalography. It allows scientists to measure the electrical activity in different areas of the brain as a person performs a task. The equipment picks up different types of brain waves, ranging from slow delta waves to faster beta waves, depending on how hard the brain is working.

The researchers recorded this electrical activity while the participants completed four isolated computer tasks. They also recorded the participants’ brain waves while they solved an actual Rubik’s Cube. The four isolated tasks were designed to test specific mental skills required for puzzle solving.

The first task involved rearranging colored rings on a screen to match a target image, which tested planning abilities. The second task required participants to judge the angles and positions of different lines on a screen. This specific assessment measured their ability to visually identify and mentally manipulate objects.

The third task was a memory matching game that tested spatial working memory. It required participants to flip over hidden tiles on a screen to find matching color patterns. The fourth task required participants to perform a specific sequence of repetitive moves on a physical Rubik’s Cube for 60 seconds to measure their fine motor skills.

After the isolated tasks, the participants completed the main event. They were given 15 seconds to look at a scrambled Rubik’s Cube and plan their strategy. Immediately after this planning phase, they physically solved the puzzle as quickly as possible.

When looking at the data, the scientists found that the brain regions controlling memory, action planning, spatial manipulation, and fine motor skills were highly synchronized. The brain waves from these distinct areas worked together seamlessly to facilitate rapid decision-making. The electrical activity across all frequency bands was remarkably similar during both the 15-second planning phase and the physical execution phase.

“Solving the Rubik’s cube demands high engagement of brain areas controlling memory, action planning, visuospatial manipulation of objects and fine motor skills,” Oliveira told PsyPost. “Our study showed that the waves from brain areas controlling such abilities are more synchronized, facilitating the decision-making process.”

“The main surprise was that the brain regions work very similarly when the athletes are mentally memorizing the cube or physically solving the puzzle. It seems that these athletes are so adapted to solving the cube that they don’t need the ‘physical’ cube anymore. They can solve it in their minds and just repeat the moves in the physical object.”

The researchers also found specific connections between the isolated cognitive tasks and the actual puzzle solving. For instance, slow delta brain waves in the back of the brain correlated strongly with the physical execution of the puzzle. This back area is known as the occipital lobe, and it primarily handles visual processing. This connection highlights the heavy need for visual and physical integration during the task.

Similarly, performance on the line angle task correlated with slow brain waves in both the front and back of the brain. This association points to the heavy reliance on visual and spatial abilities.

Performance on the ring-sorting planning task correlated with delta and theta brain waves in the temporal lobe, which sits on the side of the brain. This specific link demonstrates that general planning abilities are deeply engaged when figuring out a Rubik’s Cube. The scientists noted that the planning stage of the puzzle was also strongly tied to an individual’s proficiency in fine motor skills.

While this research provides a clear look into expert cognition, there are a few caveats to keep in mind. The study only included experienced speed-cubers. Without a control group of beginners, researchers cannot definitively say which specific brain adaptations occur only after someone reaches a professional level. The study also had a small sample size of only 13 participants, and all of them were young men.

“An important limitation in the study is that we did not measure the performance and brain activity in regular practitioners of Rubik’s cube,” Oliveira said. “Having the comparison between regular people and athletes could show which brain areas are more adapted to solve the cube once you reach a professional level.”

Looking ahead, the scientists note the importance of studying how the brain changes over time as a person learns to solve these puzzles. Tracking beginners as they become experts could provide better insight into how the brain acquires complex visual and physical skills.

“Our research opened an important venue to investigate how the brain adapts to complex cognitive-motor tasks,” Oliveira said. “In the long-term, our research can help defining relevant cognitive tasks for children with underdeveloped brains and/or neurological disorders to improve their cognitive capacity. This is highly relevant since low cognitive capacity directly impacts learning and future prospects for social interactions and professional development.”

The study, “The electrocortical activity of elite Rubik’s cube athletes while solving the cube,” was authored by Ali Asghar Zarei, Casper Ravn Frederiksen, Mathias Bundgaard Jensen, and Anderson Souza Oliveira.