Tetris Ease Post-Traumatic Stress

Tetris Ease Post-Traumatic Stress

Playing Tetris, rated one of the greatest video games of all time, immediately after traumatic events appears to reduce flashbacks that plague sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a British study.

The preliminary findings could lead to new treatments to prevent flashbacks that are a hallmark of the condition, also known as PTSD, Oxford University researchers said.

"This is only a first step in showing that this might be a viable approach to preventing post traumatic stress disorder," said Emily Holmes, a psychologist who led the study.

"This was a pure science experiment about how the mind works from which we can try to understand the bigger picture," Holmes said in a statement.

PTSD can often stem from wartime trauma such as being wounded or seeing others hurt or killed.

Symptoms range from irritability and outbursts of anger to sleep difficulties, trouble concentrating, extreme vigilance and an exaggerated startle response. People also can persistently relive the traumatic event.

The Oxford team showed a film to 40 healthy volunteers that included traumatic images of injury from several sources, including advertisements on the dangers of drunk driving.

After waiting 30 minutes, half the people played Tetris for 10 minutes while the others did nothing. Those who played the game had far fewer flashbacks to the film over the next week.

The game involves manipulating shapes composed of square blocks that fall down the screen to create a horizontal line of blocks without gaps. When a line is created it disappears.

The researchers believe that recognizing the shapes and moving the colored building blocks around in the computer game competes with the visions of trauma retained in the sensory part of the brain.

This process may somehow interfere with the way sensory memories are formed in the period following trauma and reduce the number of flashbacks experienced later on, they said this week in the Public Library of Science Journal PLoS ONE.

"We know there is a period of up to six hours in which it is possible to affect certain types of memories that are laid down in the human mind," Catherine Deeprose, who worked on the study, added in a statement.

"We have shown that in healthy volunteers, playing Tetris in this time window can reduce flashback-type memories without wiping out the ability to make sense of the event."

Classic Board Games Converts to Digital

Classic Board Games Converts to Digital

Classic board games like Monopoly are going virtual under a partnership between Electronic Arts and Hasbro as the whole family from children to grandparents become gamers.

Games like "Monopoly Here and Now: World Edition," "Battleship" and "Boggle" have entered the digital world with EA using the International Consumer Electronics Show to showcase upcoming spring releases aimed at the burgeoning casual games market.

A new version of "SCRABBLE" for PSP and Nintendo DS introduces a SCRABBLE Slam mode that challenges players to get rid of Slam cards by spelling words.

Those wishing to go green can save paper by playing "Trivial Pursuit" on Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2.

After releasing "Hasbro Family Game Night" on Wii and PS2 last fall, EA is offering all of the games on Xbox Live Arcade.

Gamers can buy games individually or the entire suite, which includes "SCRABBLE," "Connect Four," "Boggle," "Yahtzee," "Battleship," "Sorry!," and "Sorry! Sliders."

Family game night

But despite the recent influx of board games going digital, Hasbro isn't about to lose its lucrative board game business.

"I don't think you can ever replace the experience of pulling out a box of "Monopoly" and playing in front of the fireplace with your family over the holidays," said Chip Lange, EA Hasbro vice president and general manager.

Instead, Lange foresees video games giving franchises like "SCRABBLE" and "Yahtzee" new life through online connectivity that allows families to play together from across the country.

The virtual world also opens up new gameplay options like a 30-minute speed game of "Monopoly."

"The cardboard version of "Connect Four" is limited to connecting four checkers in a row, but we can do things like blow up checkers in the digital version and it adds a lot of new strategic gameplay mechanics," said Lange. "These video games keep the brands relevant in the digital age."

Due in large part to Nintendo's successful Wii and Nintendo DS platforms, the game industry has seen an explosion of new players over the past two years.

According to the Entertainment Software Association, 65 percent of American households now play video games and they are taking up casual games which range from board games to music games like "Rock Band 2" and "Guitar Hero: World Tour."

"Casual games are expanding the market by bringing lapsed gamers back into the market, and families together around the TV," said Geoff Keighley, host of Spike TV's "Game Trailers."

"Casual games are successful when they are easy to understand and pick up and play. So the established Hasbro brands should really help EA's games break through the clutter."

Variety of gamers

According to a recent study by IGN Entertainment and Ipsos MediaCT, over half of gamers polled were married, 48 percent have kids, and new gamers — those who have started playing video games in the past two years — are 32 years old on average.

"Today's gamers represent a wide variety of demographic groups: men and women, kids, parents and grandparents, younger and older consumers," said Adam Wright, director of research for Ipsos MediaCT.

"All this underscores the fact that gaming has become a mainstream medium in this country that appeals to people from all walks of life."

But not every platform has been a smash success.

EA received a backlash from Facebook users last year when the popular but unlicensed "Scrabulous" game was forcibly replaced by EA's official "SCRABBLE" game, which launched with far less depth than its popular predecessor. Lange said changes have been made.

"We listened to the gamers and a lot of the later developments in the game like being able to type in your letters and being able to turn off the animations for slower PCs all came from the message boards," said Lange.

"I think people have realized that the video game market has grown from being just a series of core holiday blockbusters to being a global male/female interactive platform for all ages."