Is tetris the post-traumatic wonder cure
20 Feb 2009 by Evoluted New Media
You might imagine that the blocky graphics and incessant beeps of Tetris tend to increase stress levels - but now psychologists think that a game or two of the classic computer game may actually help sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
You might imagine that the blocky graphics and incessant beeps of Tetris tend to increase stress levels - but now psychologists think that a game or two of the classic computer game may actually help sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Playing Tetris after traumatic events could reduce the flashbacks experienced in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), preliminary research by Oxford University psychologists suggests.
The researchers report in PLoS ONE that for healthy volunteers, playing Tetris soon after viewing traumatic material in the laboratory can reduce the number of flashbacks to those scenes in the following week. They believe that the computer game may disrupt the memories that are retained of the sights and sounds witnessed at the time, and which are later re-experienced through involuntary, distressing flashbacks of that moment.
“This is only a first step in showing that this might be a viable approach to preventing PTSD,” said Dr Emily Holmes of the Department of Psychiatry, who led the work. “This was a pure science experiment about how the mind works from which we can try to understand the bigger picture. There is a lot to be done to translate this experimental science result into a potential treatment.”
The work is based on several psychological traits - mainly that there is a short time after an event in which it is possible to interfere with the way our memories are retained in the brain. The team reasoned that recognising the shapes and moving the coloured building blocks around in the game soon after seeing traumatic events should compete with the visions of trauma to be retained in the sensory part of the brain. The narrative and meaning of the events should be unaffected.
“We know there is a period of up to six hours in which it is possible to affect certain types of memories that are laid down in the human mind,” said member of the team Dr Catherine Deeprose. “We have shown that in healthy volunteers, playing ‘Tetris’ in this time window can reduce flashback-type memories without wiping out the ability to make sense of the event.”
