Video games may protect mental health and avert trauma, addiction - Ars Technica

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Video games often blamed for rotting minds may actually protect them, according to a series of studies.

Researchers report that Tetris—a classic game that takes hold of spatial and visual systems in the brain as players align irregular polygons—seems to jumble the mind’s ability to process and store fresh traumatic memories. Those improperly preserved memories are subsequently less likely to resurface as intrusive, distressing flashbacks, which can contribute to post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, complicated grief, and other mental health issues.

For those struggling with cravings or addiction, other research has found that Tetris’ mental grasp can also diminish the intensity of hankerings and help game players fight off real-life dependencies.

Though the conclusions are based on small studies in need of repeating and further investigation, one thing is clear: the potential video-game therapy has scant side-effects and potential harms. Twenty-minutes of Tetris is just good fun, if nothing else.

In the words of the authors of a new study, Tetris is a “promising new low-intensity psychiatric intervention.”

Nintendo therapy

For long-term Ars readers, the intervention may not seem that new. Back in 2009 and 2010, we covered preliminary work from one of the same lead researchers, clinical psychologist Emily Holmes, who is now at the Karolinska Institute. From early studies, Holmes and colleagues suggested that playing Tetris could interrupt memory processing immediately after a traumatic experience. The findings backed up the authors’ hypothesis that, after a traumatic experience, there’s an opening lasting several hours in which a visual, traumatic memory “stabilization” can be disrupted. By hijacking the visual and spatial processing power of the brain with an enthralling game—enter Tetris—the memories can be disrupted during that window, the researchers found.

But, those early experiments relied solely on study participants who were “traumatized” by watching grim footage of fatal traffic collisions and gory surgeries. In the new study, again led by Holmes and published in Molecular Psychiatry, researchers tested Tetris therapy on victims of real-life traffic accidents.

Seventy-one patients that arrived in an Oxford, UK, hospital emergency department within six hours of being involved in a traffic accident were enrolled in the study. In all cases, the participants’ accidents met the medical criteria of a traumatic event. That is, each participant “experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury.”

Thirty-seven participants were randomly chosen to play about 20 minutes of Tetris on Nintendo DS while they were in the hospital. The remaining 34 just logged their activity while they were in the hospital. They recorded things like reading, texting, getting care, chatting, or doing a crossword puzzle.

A week later, the Tetris players reported that they, on average, were hit with an intrusive, disturbing flashback 8.7 times during the week. The activity-logging group reported an average of 23.3 upsetting flashbacks. That suggests that 20 minutes of Tetris cut flashbacks by around 62 percent. When the researchers checked back with the participants a month later, they didn’t note any statistically significant differences in the overall mental health of the two groups. But this, the authors argue, could simply be due to the small, short-term design of the study. Larger trials and potentially more Tetris are needed to assess potential long-term effects.

Visualizing health

In all, the researchers conclude that the “brief, science-driven intervention offers a low-intensity means that could substantially improve the mental health of those who have experienced psychological trauma.” And, they go on, “not only Tetris, but any task with high visuospatial demands is likely to be useful within the procedure (e.g. games such as Candy Crush, drawing).”

Such visuospatial usurping may not just be useful for trauma victims, other research suggests. In late 2015, a group of English and Australian researchers reported that playing Tetris could dampen cravings for addictive substances, such as nicotine, alcohol, and drugs, as well as other vices, such as food and sex.

The study, published in Addictive Behaviors, followed 31 undergraduate volunteers who carried around iPods for a week and filled out surveys seven times a day about their cravings. Fifteen of the participants also got to play three minutes of Tetris after the surveys, then report on their cravings again. When the week was up, the researchers found that playing Tetris consistently reduced craving strength by 13.9 percent—about a fifth. That, the authors explained, could be just enough for people to ignore those cravings and avoid their vice.

The researchers again hypothesized that the game’s ability to seize visual and spatial processing in the brain is key to the health benefits. In this case, addiction and cravings are often driven by visual fantasies of having that drink, drug, or what-have-you, the authors explained.

As before, more and larger studies are needed to line up the true benefits. Still, with this experimental treatment, it’s safe to try at home.

Molecular Psychiatry, 2017. DOI: 10.1038/mp.2017.23  (About DOIs).

Addictive Behaviors, 2017. DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2015.07.020 (About DOIs).