The player: Tetris may stop trauma flashbacks

Oxford University last week announced research suggesting that playing the computer game Tetris reduces flashbacks to trauma . Tetris was found to be far more effective than playing a quiz game. Players weren't just being distracted from unpleasant memories; the falling-blocks game has a beneficial effect. The researchers suggest it could lead to a " cognitive vaccine against traumatic flashbacks ". The researchers think Tetris helps because this type of game uses the brain's "perceptual channel", but not the "contextual" one. Internet parodies such as " Tetris: The Movie " notwithstanding, Tetris is the archetype of a game that takes plenty of attention but has no meaning. So, it competes in the brain with memories of vivid sense perceptions – which create flashbacks – but doesn't compete with the helpful contextual associations that give meaning to traumatic experience. Tetris is one of the most popular and most played games; it's sold more than 70m copies . It's also the kind of game that's often called "mindless" – nothing is built or created, no story is told, no characters are encountered. But it occurs to me that Tetris, and Tetris-like "casual" games such as Bejeweled or Bubble Shooter have become popular over the same period that we have been increasingly bombarded with traumatic images in the media . Even the least game- playing people I know admit to the occasional session of Snake or Flight Control on their phone. Perhaps we're all self-medicating against traumatic images; perhaps "mindless" gaming is just what we need.