November 3rd, 2009
Tetris and Your Brain: FootGaming Greatness
Play Tetris with your feet! Fitness and brain power fun.
Computer games pervade all aspects of our lives whether we get our fix from a console, a cell phone or our desktop PC. Some game websites feature a new game every day while other bet on our favorites, like Tetris.
Developed decades ago by a Soviet computer scientist, Tetris is played as geometric shapes fall from the top of the screen. The goal is to position the shapes so they form a straight line and then disappear from the screen. Despite its minimalism, this year Tetris celebrates its 25th birthday.
But while Tetris continues to win over new legions of entry-level computer gamers, it's also been drawing the interest of brain scientists. Some even suggest the game may actually be good for the health of the mind if not the body. We have been playing Tetris for over two years using a foot-driven computer mouse controller called the FootPOWR. The connection of Tetris game play to mind and body health is exciting stuff.
The latest Tetris study comes from the Mind Research Network (MRN) - a brain research organization based in the United States. Using little more than MRI brain scanners and game consoles, scientists have found that regular turns on Tetris caused the grey matter in a group of teenage girls to thicken.
Earlier this year, Oxford University reported that Tetris could reduce the flashbacks experienced in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ( For more on this see the link to Dr. Carmen Rusoniello's study)
In the research published this week, 26 adolescents were asked to play Tetris for 30 minutes a day over a three-month period. Their brain power was then compared with a similar group who hadn't been playing the game.
The theory is that Tetris thickens the cerebral cortex - part of the brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language and consciousness.
"What we found was a change in the brain after playing Tetris," says Dr Richard Haier, a neurologist who led the project. "The thickness of the cerebral cortex actually increased, by less than half a millimetre.
Brain efficiency
"It used to be thought that the number of neurones [brain cells] in the brain was fixed after a certain age. This appears not to be true."
It's not the first time Dr Haier has seen research potential in playing Tetris, initially discovering the game in the early 1990s.
"Back then we were trying to find out what happens if you practise something over time. We suspected that the brain efficiency was the key concept.
"I was looking for a game that was suited to look at what happens to the brain when you practice a complex task. Tetris was the perfect game, it was simple to learn, you had to practice to get good and there was a good learning curve. Tetris is an excellent tool for neuroscience."
With everyone from elementary school teachers to aging Boomers looking for ways to enhance cognition and fitness the Tetris study is good news. Just the same, playing one game well isn't enough to deliver the gamer with all the brain-enhancing function it needs. Like anything else, variety, open-ended challenge and a balance makes the best sense. Take a look at FootGaming and the array of games that can be played on the computer. By tying the game-based benefits to fitness and balance challenge of FootGaming even more benefits can be enjoyed per minute of game play.
