Could playing TETRIS banish bad memories? Retro Nintendo game 'reduces the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder'

  • Researchers asked participants to watch a 12-minute traumatic film 
  • Participants recorded each time they had intrusive memories for a week
  • The day after watching the video, the group returned to the lab and as half played Tetris for 12 minutes, the other half had a break 
  • At the end of the week the group which played the game and took part in the reactivation test had 51% fewer intrusive memories than the control

By Victoria Woollaston for MailOnline

Published: 10:04 EST, 7 July 2015 | Updated: 10:26 EST, 7 July 2015

The memory of traumatic event - such as a car crash or being the victim of a violent crime - can cement itself in your mind within a matter of hours.

But a new study has found that playing the 90s Tetris game immediately after an upsetting event can lower the number of flashbacks.

And researchers say the effect is so powerful, it can even work a day after the event when it is believed the memories should well-established and harder to shift. 

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Researchers asked participants to watch a 12-minute traumatic film and record each time they had intrusive memory for a week. The day after watching the video the group returned to the lab and as half were shown stills from the film before playing Tetris (stock image), the other half didn't take part in either test

Researchers asked participants to watch a 12-minute traumatic film and record each time they had intrusive memory for a week. The day after watching the video the group returned to the lab and as half were shown stills from the film before playing Tetris (stock image), the other half didn't take part in either test

Scientists from the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge asked 52 participants, aged between 18 and 51, to watch a 12-minute traumatic film featuring 11 scenes involving death.

Scenes included a young girl hit by a car with blood dripping out of her ear, a man drowning in the sea, and a van hitting a teenage boy while he was using his mobile phone crossing the road.

HOW TETRIS TACKLES TRAUMA

Researchers from Cambridge asked 52 participants, aged between 18 and 51, to watch a 12-minute traumatic film featuring 11 scenes involving death.

Scenes included a young girl hit by a car with blood dripping out of her ear, a man drowning in the sea, and a van hitting a teenage boy.

All participants were then asked to write a diary for the following week that recorded how often they suffered from 'intrusive memories'. 

The day after watching the video, the group returned to the lab and were split into two. 

The 'reactivation-plus-Tetris group' was given a memory-reactivation task in which they were shown 11 film stills followed by a filler task for 10 minutes in which they were asked to rate classical music. 

They then then played Tetris for 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, the control group was given neither the memory-reactivation task nor played Tetris. 

At the end of the week, the group that played the game experienced 51 per cent fewer intrusive memories than the control group. 

All participants were then asked to write a diary for the following week that recorded how often they suffered from 'intrusive memories'.

These are memories that appear in the mind's eye on their own, in the form of 'flashbacks', rather than memories that the participants actively recalled. 

The day after watching the video, the group returned to the lab and were split into two. 

The 'reactivation-plus-Tetris group' was given a memory-reactivation task in which they were shown 11 film stills followed by a filler task for 10 minutes in which they were asked to rate classical music. 

They then then played Tetris for 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, the control group was given neither the memory-reactivation task nor played Tetris. 

Instead, they took part in the 10-minute filler task before being given a 12-minute break. 

On day seven, the participants returned to the lab to fill in a questionnaire and complete memory tests to confirm how much they remembered of the film's content. 

At the end of the week, the group that played the game experienced 51 per cent fewer intrusive memories than the control group.

The Tetris players also scored lower on the intrusive memory section of a questionnaire used to diagnose PTSD. 

'We showed that intrusive memories were virtually abolished by playing the computer game Tetris following a memory-reactivation task 24 hours after initial exposure to experimental trauma,' explained the researchers. 

At the end of the week the group that took part in the memory reactivation task and played the game (shown right) experienced 51 per cent fewer intrusive memories than the control group (shown left). Tetris is able to create a so-called 'cognitive blockade' which reduces the strength of the visual part of the memory

At the end of the week the group that took part in the memory reactivation task and played the game (shown right) experienced 51 per cent fewer intrusive memories than the control group (shown left). Tetris is able to create a so-called 'cognitive blockade' which reduces the strength of the visual part of the memory

Critically though, neither playing Tetris alone nor the control of memory reactivation alone was sufficient to reduce intrusions. 

Lead researcher Emily Holmes believes Tetris is able to create a so-called 'cognitive blockade' because it requires a high level of visual processing.

This reduces the strength of the visual part of the memory meaning that a person remembers what happened, but not in graphic detail. 

Researchers now want to study whether other visual processing tasks and other games could have a similar result. 

The findings are published in the journal Psychological Science.  


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