Tetris to Cure Traumatic Stress, Terror, Save World etc.

[Rob McCow]

From the BBC:

Playing the computer puzzle game Tetris could help reduce the effects of traumatic stress, UK researchers say. Volunteers were exposed to distressing images, with some given the game to play 30 minutes later, the PLoS One journal reported. Players had fewer "flashbacks", perhaps because it helped disrupt the laying down of memories, said the scientists.

However, another specialist said no study could match the intensity of a real-life traumatic experience. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), often associated with experiences during conflict, can affect anyone who has suffered a sudden and shocking incident.

One of its main features is the "flashback", in which the distressing sights, sounds or smells of the incident can return in everyday life. The Oxford University experiment works on the principle that it may be possible to modify the way in which the brain forms memories in the hours after an event.

A total of 40 healthy volunteers were enrolled, and shown a film which included traumatic images of injuries. Half of the group were then given the game to play while the other half did nothing. The number of "flashbacks" experienced by each group was then reported and recorded over the next week, and those who played Tetris had significantly fewer.

Treatment hope

Dr Emily Holmes said it might produce a "viable approach" to PTSD treatment, although she acknowledged that a lot needed to be done to translate the experiment into something that could be used to help real patients.

She said: "We wanted to find a way to dampen down flashbacks - the raw sensory images of trauma that are over-represented in the memories of those with PTSD.

"Tetris may work by competing for the brain's resources for sensory information.

"We suggest it specifically interferes with the way sensory memories are laid down in the period after trauma and thus reduces the number of flashbacks that are experienced afterwards."

She stressed that no conclusions could be drawn on the general effects of computer gaming on memory.

However, Professor David Alexander from the Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research was unconvinced.

He said: "It is ethically impossible to simulate an event which is so catastrophic as the type of incident which can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.

"The volunteers here knew that something was going to happen, but they were not going to be harmed - a genuinely traumatic incident is different in scale, and is usually completely unexpected and marked by feelings of loss of control."

He said that post-traumatic stress was normally detected and diagnosed only weeks after the event, rather than in the hours immediately afterwards, and it was very difficult to predict which people were likely to develop it.

I've played Tetris (or one of it's many clones) before, most recently on the 24 hour flight back from New Zealand last year. While it's good fun, I doubt very much that it would help anyone do anything, apart from play Tetris. Surely the same could be said of any involving activity, such as reading books, running or Morris Dancing?

[Dirk Gently]

The last time I played Tetris I got quite annoyed at it.

[WhiteCrow]

Surely the same could be said of any involving activity, such as reading books, running or Morris Dancing?

Oh it's very true regarding Morris Dancing. It cures all ills from stress to headaches and athletes foot.

[Antony Cox]

Tetris is my favourtie computer game ever!

Shows how basic I am...

[Paul Monk]

What a rubbish study. Why Tetris? If you really want to find out what helps people get over this sort of thing then you chose a range of things and compare to the control group. You can't just single out one thing, and then hail it as the saviour of all mankind.
You may have disovered that those who had a crap 30 minutes later recovered better.

[WhiteCrow]

They do say a good bowel movement is like a religious experience. I'm not sure you've had either Paul!

[Paul Monk]

Are you hiding in my toilet?

[WhiteCrow]

Try starting the day with a hi-bran cerial Paul!

[Paul Monk]

I'm checking the u bend next time to see if you're there.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

It's also a bit worrying that the theory they come up with for why it works is that playing Tetris stops you laying down memories properly. So for the vast majority of people playing Tetris, who presumably haven't just been in a car crash or seen their families murdered, will just have a crapper memory as a result of playing it.

[WhiteCrow]

Don't Paul - I remember convincing my son there were such things as Toilet Faeries, who lived in a magical kingdom just beyond the U-bend.

[SiHart]

This from a man who worried about lying to his son about Father Christmas!

Si xx