Tetris blocks traumatic flashbacks even after the memory is fixed | Hacker News Reader

Tetris blocks traumatic flashbacks even after the memory is fixed

newscientist.com

53 pointscpncrunch11 comments

> Half the participants then spent 12 minutes playing Tetris while the others just sat quietly for 12 minutes.

From reading just this article alone, it sounds just as likely that looking at photos of your trauma a day later and then sitting there quietly thinking about it for 12 minutes causes twice as many traumatic flashbacks as looking at the photos and then being distracted by something else so you don't think about it.

Their control group seems a bit questionable to me -- maybe sitting there quietly for 12 minutes increases the risk of flashbacks? It seems possible that you'd end up thinking about the traumatic event.

Agree. This has nothing to do with tetris, and ironically, the 'researchers' ended up being the ones distracted by the colored blocks if they didn't realize it had nothing to do with the game and everything to do with the control sitting there doing nothing.

> "Think of it like hand washing. Hand washing is not a fancy intervention, but it can reduce all sorts of illness. This is similar"

How did they miss the obvious analogy?

hand : handwashing :: brain : ___________

or perhaps:

> The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?-What, will these hands ne'er be clean?

Interesting. I recently had a guy email me to say that my game Twenty (which I find induces a similar kind of focussed mental state as Tetris) was helping him with his military flashbacks.

On the flip-side I would imagine this is similar to the kind of 'hypnosis' induced by poker machines and the like.

Seems this would also "help" keep you from forming desirable memories. Does Candy Crush have the same effect? Is King creating a zombie army of people who have blocked out all significant memories from their lives?

Interesting, I like to zone out to Tetris and similar games and ponder on some of the distressing memories in my life, I wonder if I stumbled onto something beneficial or I'm just numbing my brain as you suggest?

If I read correctly they're not recommending Tetris be played after every memory-forming event, just after distressing events.

Similarly, if you only play Tetris after distressing events, you may become conditioned to be distressed by Tetris.

I thought this study was interesting, although it's a little dubious. There's a big difference between "watching video footage of distressing events" and actually experiencing it.

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