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Playing Tetris Improves Your Brain

By Miss Cellania in Science & Tech, Toy & Video Games on Sep 2, 2009 at 12:50 pm


Research shows that playing the video game Tetris can improve your brain’s efficiency and will thicken some areas of the cortex. Neuroscientist Richard Haier had adolescent girls play Tetris for three months and looked for changes in their brain scans.

Three months of Tetris playing had two distinct effects on the brains of research subjects: Some areas in the brain showed greater efficiency (the blue areas in the diagram above), and different areas showed thicker cortexes, which is a sign of more grey matter (red). This, says the doctors who undertook the study, shows that focusing on a “challenging visuospatial task” like a videogame can actually alter the structure of the brain, not just increase brain activity [Wired.com]. But surprisingly, there was no overlap between the regions that became more efficient and those that thickened. Haier says more research must be done to determine how different areas of the brain interact during game playing

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  1. Dru
    Sep 2nd, 2009 at 1:31 pm

    See I told you mom! I wasn't just wasting my time on those stupid video games! You might have stunted my intellectual growth! If I would have been able to play more Tetris, I probably wouldn't have had to use spell check in order to write that last line...

  2. SimonSays
    Sep 2nd, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    Next: Tetris 101

    in a college near you!

  3. Gauldar
    Sep 2nd, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    I've got in the habit of using the website spellcheckplus.com, because it points out the mistakes, and offers correct spelling, but you have to type the corrections yourself.

  4. s3xt0y
    Sep 2nd, 2009 at 3:51 pm

    sweet, considering i have no life and play tetris everyday shame on me, but also good on me lol, but which one is the better side. hm..

  5. hagbard celine
    Sep 2nd, 2009 at 4:21 pm

    nice, i'm going to forward this on to my boss next time he catches me playing tetris at work

  6. Ivan Moor
    Sep 2nd, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    I've always knew this, ever since, when I was Ten years old, at night when closing my eyes...

    Tee-hee!

  7. Douglas2
    Sep 2nd, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    I'd always heard that the "tetris effect" was an adaptation that reduced an individual's performance in the real world, unless your job was as a show roadie packing a truck, or something.

  8. Frau
    Sep 2nd, 2009 at 9:52 pm

    I know it has helped me bag my groceries. :)

  9. Busted Keys
    Sep 3rd, 2009 at 1:22 pm

    what about playing "email tetris" as i like to call it? i get TONS of email inquiries at work and i swear, trying to get to them all is like trying not to let all those pieces reach the top of the brim!

  10. Busted Keys
    Sep 3rd, 2009 at 1:23 pm

    what about playing "email tetris" as i like to call it? i get TONS of email inquiries about music at work and i swear, trying to get to them all is like trying not to let all those pieces reach the top of the brim!

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