Could Playing Tetris Help Reduce Your Cravings? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/15/could-playing-tetris-help-reduce-your-cravings456/

Tetris Mania

Today entertainment of all kinds can be found throughout the world from games, outdoor activities, and arts, etc. However, nothing beats entertainment like the classics. Those youthful days of playing Donkey Kong on your Gameboy, or Tetris on your computer. Tetris is still everywhere, and the iconic colored blocks are still just as easily recognizable. Available on virtually all handheld devices, Apple and Android products alike, and most gaming consoles. Tetris will always be a fun game, but could playing Tetris end harmful addictive behavior for good?

How Tetris and Science collide

In recent news, a press release from Plymouth University on the 13th of August, describes how Tetris may help overcome cravings. The cravings can be drugs, food, or sex, and such. The research was published in Addictive Behaviors. There it highlighted that playing Tetris when one had a craving for one of the aforementioned things above, or similar negative habits, Tetris helps to weaken the craving in a natural setting. Furthermore, the effect lasted for over a week’s time. It was also noted that the effect was more influential when intoxicated or under the influence of alcohol.

Other interesting Things About Tetris

In the same press release on the research of how Tetris can help manage cravings, Professor Jackie Andrade said that that playing Tetris decreased craving strength from 70% to 56%. The effect the gameplay is having may be due to the mental process being kept busy and indulged in the gaming experience. Thereby, taking one’s mind off the craving or reducing it in the process. Another professor also mentioned that the effect did not wear off even as the gameplay increased and the effect remaining consistent. This may be important to note because as one becomes familiar with a particular intervention, one acclimates to it and the effect starts to diminish as a tolerance builds up to it. However, with this the effect doesn’t seem to be diminishing as one would expect, but instead has remained consistent as previously mentioned. So, playing Tetris could potentially help in further intervention studies, but also help those with cravings manage their cravings in everyday life.

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Could Playing Tetris Help Reduce Your Cravings?

Playing Tetris Could Prevent Traumatic Memories From Forming - http://clapway.com/2015/07/09/playing-tetris-could-prevent-traumatic-memories-from-forming987/

Research is being done to help trauma victims who have painful flashbacks and memories. Scientists in the United Kingdom are investigating to see if a simple game like Tetris could be helpful.

Scientists based at the University of Cambridge, Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, and the University of Oxford examined subjects who have seen videos of actual traumatic events, including those that result in death, and then had some of them play Tetris as a way to help them rid their mind of those traumatic images.

THIS MIGHT HELP THOSE WITH PTSD

This Tetris treatment might be another avenue for those experience PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder. This is most commonly associated with those who are in the military. For those who are experiencing PTSD, they go through all types of treatment such as lifestyle changes, therapy, and medication.

TETRIS MAY HELP REMOVE INVASIVE MEMORIES OF IMAGES

The goal of the researchers was to remove the invasive memories associated with the trauma. These memories can include paralyzing flashbacks that cannot be controlled. There were 56 people that were used in this study. In the experiment, in those people who played Tetris 24 hours after seeing a film containing disturbing video footage, reports showed that fewer of these memories occurred in the days after the initial viewing.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The researchers made a theory that playing the game Tetris reconfigured the visual memory because the brain focuses on both the visual game and the memory of the film.

Although the study admits that it was limited since seeing a traumatic image on TV is different from experiencing it, but the theory does show promise for those who experience traumatic events.

VISUAL TRAUMA IS NOT EXPERIENCED TRAUMA

Psychologists and trauma and crisis intervention specialists are skeptical of the correlation of the study to those who actually experience traumatic events. The comparison of a horror film trauma to the tangible or scent association of an experienced trauma is not there.

Although solid research will have to be done before the Tetris theory can be taken as a serious idea for dealing with post-trauma situations, it is an interesting hypothesis that shows promise nonetheless.

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Playing Tetris Could Prevent Traumatic Memories From Forming