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Playing the computer puzzle game Tetris can help reduce the effects of
traumatic stress, UK researchers say.
Volunteers were exposed to distressing images, with some given the game to play
30 minutes later, the PLoS One journal reported.
Players had fewer "flashbacks", perhaps because it helped disrupt the laying
down of memories, said the scientists.
It is hoped the study could aid the development of new strategies for
minimising the impact of trauma.
However, the researchers accept translating their findings into practical
applications could prove difficult.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), often associated with experiences during
conflict, can affect anyone who has suffered a sudden and shocking incident.
One of its main features is the "flashback", in which the distressing sights,
sounds or smells of the incident can return in everyday life.
Tetris may work by competing for the brain's resources for sensory information
Dr Emily Holmes
Oxford University
The Oxford University experiment works on the principle that it may be possible
to modify the way in which the brain forms memories in the hours after an
event.
A total of 40 healthy volunteers were enrolled, and shown a film which included
traumatic images of injuries.
Half of the group were then given the game to play while the other half did
nothing.
The number of "flashbacks" experienced by each group was then reported and
recorded over the next week, and those who played Tetris had significantly
fewer.
Treatment hope
Dr Emily Holmes said it might produce a "viable approach" to PTSD treatment,
although she acknowledged that a lot needed to be done to translate the
experiment into something that could be used to help real patients.
She said: "We wanted to find a way to dampen down flashbacks - the raw sensory
images of trauma that are over-represented in the memories of those with PTSD.
"Tetris may work by competing for the brain's resources for sensory
information.
"We suggest it specifically interferes with the way sensory memories are laid
down in the period after trauma and thus reduces the number of flashbacks that
are experienced afterwards."
She stressed that no conclusions could be drawn on the general effects of
computer gaming on memory.
Dr Holmes added: "We are not saying that people with PTSD should play Tetris
but we do think it is hugely valuable to understand how the brain works and how
it produces intrusive flashback memories.
"Because we cannot study the genesis of real flashback memories during real
trauma we need to find other approaches and this sort of cognitive science can
give us models to help us better understand emotional memory."
Professor David Alexander from the Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research stressed
it was ethically impossible to simulate an event so catastrophic as the type of
incident which can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.
"The volunteers here knew that something was going to happen, but they were not
going to be harmed - a genuinely traumatic incident is different in scale, and
is usually completely unexpected and marked by feelings of loss of control."
He said that post-traumatic stress was normally detected and diagnosed only
weeks after the event, rather than in the hours immediately afterwards, and it
was very difficult to predict which people were likely to develop it.