Doctors Prescribing 'Tetris Therapy'


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The video game Tetris may quell flashbacks of traumatic events in a way that other kinds of games can't, researchers have found.

The curious effect might have to do with how the shapes in the game compete with images of a traumatic scene when it comes to getting stored in one's memory.

Tetris, one of the most popular video games of all time, involves moving and rotating shapes falling down a playing field with the aim of creating horizontal lines of blocks without gaps.

In earlier work, scientists at Oxford University in England found that playing Tetris after traumatic events could reduce flashbacks in healthy volunteers. The hope of this research is to reduce the painful memories linked with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Our latest findings suggest Tetris is still effective as long as it is played within a four-hour window after viewing a stressful film," said researcher Emily Holmes, a research clinical psychologist at Oxford University. "Whilst playing Tetris can reduce flashback-type memories without wiping out the ability to make sense of the event, we have shown that not all computer games have this beneficial effect ? some may even have a detrimental effect on how people deal with traumatic memories."

To explain these unusual results, think of the mind as having two separate channels of thought. One is sensory, dealing with perceptions of the world as experienced through sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, while the other is conceptual, responsible for combining sensory details in a meaningful way.

These channels generally work in harmony with each other ? for instance, we might see and hear someone talk and quickly comprehend what that person is saying. However, after traumatic events, the sensory channel is thought to overwhelm the conceptual one. As such, we are less likely to, for example, remember a high-speed traffic accident as a story than as a flash of headlights and the noise of a crash. These sensory details then intrude repeatedly in a victim's mind in the form of flashbacks, often causing great distress.

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That's odd, I could have sworn this was reported a few months ago...

Oh well, time to dust off my Gameboy!

EDIT: They did report it a while back, although I guess this is a continuation of the study.

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That's odd, I could have sworn this was reported a few months ago...

Oh well, time to dust off my Gameboy!

EDIT: They did report it a while back, although I guess this is a continuation of the study.

Yes please stop your flash backs, they are annoying :p

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Yes please stop your flash backs, they are annoying :p

Heh, while I may not be dusting it off for my amusement, I could start renting it out to people as a DIY Therapy Kit. ?15 for 2 hours, a bargain compared to the price of talking to a professional! :laugh:

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<Shrug>

Makes sense to me. A distraction is only effective if it actually

takes your mind off the thing you've been dwelling on. And

Tetris does require a certain amount of focus and concentration.

Which also explains the time lapse; note that the article

suggests playing the game within four hours of the incident.

The longer you dwell on something, the harder it is to

de-program.

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