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Tetris Reduces Emotional Scars

Tetris the Russian puzzle game has been shown by researchers at Oxford University to block your brain from storing bad memories.

As if I don't have a hard enough time getting my kids to put down their various gaming devices.

Now, when I tell them 'game machines off!' they'll play them even harder, to reduce emotional scarring from having to cease game play at a grown-up's request.


(Tetris - from Russia with fun)

Dr. Emily Holmes of the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University said: "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."

Co-researcher Dr Catherine Deeprose added: "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.

"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."

And here you thought it would take something very complicated and phildickian to block bad memories.

From the Telegraph.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 1/7/2009)

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