PlayingTetrismight serve people avoid unwanted , distressing memories associated post - traumatic stress disorder . A new study from Oxford University find that the visuospatial process of playingTetriscan block traumatic remembering from surfacing .
In two different experiment , detailed inPsychological Science , participants keep an eye on a traumatic film in the lab that show images of people dying or being seriously injured . The next twenty-four hours , some of them then playedTetrisfor a few minute of arc after completing a task design to reactivate their store of the celluloid . Those who played the game report fewer intrusive memories of the film later .
This tribulation follows up ona 2009 studyby the same researchers that offer preliminary grounds thatTetriscould boil down PTSD flashbacks . worked up memory board consolidate within six hours of a traumatic experience , according to the researcher , and are thereafter hard to shift , but playingTetrismay occlude the process of reconsolidating these retentiveness . The handling was more good for people who catch figure designed to remind them of the flick before playingTetristhan for participant who just came back to the lab to take on the game .
Essentially , the working memory resource the brainiac needs to playTetrisare like to those used to call up the traumatic visual storage . So bring the secret plan interrupt the Einstein ’s ability to reconsolidate those memories . Traumatic memories are cemented within just a few hours of an event , so in pinch situations , a quick game ofTetriscould also be a way to reduce the brainiac ’s power to file away those horrific images in the first place . This report did n’t examine people diagnosed with PTSD , so the effects may not be as strong in tangible - world practice as it was for citizenry who just see a violent film , but it nevertheless present a unique way to near treatment for injury .
[ h / t : The Takeaway ]
