Trauma sufferers may benefit from computer game
Friday January 9th, 2009
Computer game addicts may sometimes claim they are therapeutic - and they now have some support.
New research suggests that playing the computer game Tetris can ease the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Experts from Oxford University, UK, investigated the game's effect on flashbacks after traumatic events. Flashbacks are the "hallmark symptom" of post-traumatic stress disorder, they explain in the journal PLoS ONE.
Early interventions are lacking, they point out. In their study participants viewed a traumatic film consisting of scenes of real injury and death. Next they were either given no task, or asked to play Tetris, a visuospatial game, for ten minutes.
Over the following week, those in the Tetris group showed a significantly lower flashback frequency. This was backed up by the results of a clinical measure of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.
Dr Emily Holmes and colleagues write: "Playing Tetris after viewing traumatic material reduces unwanted, involuntary memory flashbacks to that traumatic film, leaving deliberate memory recall of the event intact."
The effect may arise because the brain has selective resources, with limited capacity, and a roughly six-hour window to disrupt memory consolidation, the team believes. As visuospatial cognitive tasks "compete for resources required to generate mental images", a game such as Tetris will interfere with flashbacks, if used within this short time window for memory consolidation.
"Pathological aspects of human memory in the aftermath of trauma may be malleable using non-invasive, cognitive interventions," the authors write. "This has implications for a novel avenue of preventative treatment development, much-needed as a crisis intervention for the aftermath of traumatic events."
But Dr Holmes warned: "There is a lot to be done to translate this experimental science result into a potential treatment."
Tags: Brain & Neurology | General Health | Mental Health | UK News
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