Can Playing the Computer Game “Tetris” Reduce the Build-Up of Flashbacks for Trauma? A Proposal from Cognitive Science

By Emily A. Holmes, Ella L. James, Thomas Coode-Bate, C. Deeprose. 2009

414 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background Flashbacks are the hallmark symptom of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Although we have successful treatments for full-blown PTSD, early interventions are lacking. We propose the utility of developing a ‘cognitive vaccine’ to prevent PTSD flashback development following exposure to trauma. Our theory is based on two key findings: 1) Cognitive science suggests that the brain has selective resources with limited capacity; 2) The neurobiology of memory suggests a 6-hr window to disrupt memory consolidation. The rationale for a ‘cognitive vaccine’ approach is as follows: Trauma flashbacks are sensory-perceptual, visuospatial mental images. Visuospatial cognitive tasks selectively compete for resources required to generate mental images. Thus, a visuospatial computer game (e.g. “Tetris”) will interfere with flashbacks. Visuospatial tasks post-trauma, performed within the time window for memory consolidation, will reduce subsequent flashbacks. We predicted that playing “Tetris” half an hour after viewing trauma would reduce flashback frequency over 1-week. Methodology/Principal Findings The Trauma Film paradigm was used as a well-established experimental analog for Post-traumatic Stress. All participants viewed a traumatic film consisting of scenes of real injury and death followed by a 30-min structured break. Participants were then randomly allocated to either a no-task or visuospatial (“Tetris”) condition which they undertook for 10-min. Flashbacks were monitored for 1-week. Results indicated that compared to the no-task condition, the “Tetris” condition produced a significant reduction in flashback frequency over 1-week. Convergent results were found on a clinical measure of PTSD symptomatology at 1-week. Recognition memory between groups did not differ significantly. Conclusions/Significance Playing “Tetris” after viewing traumatic material reduces unwanted, involuntary memory flashbacks to that traumatic film, leaving deliberate memory recall of the event intact. Pathological aspects of human memory in the aftermath of trauma may be malleable using non-invasive, cognitive interventions. This has implications for a novel avenue of preventative treatment development, much-needed as a crisis intervention for the aftermath of traumatic events.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Epidemiology, Cognitive Science & Psychology

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In Clinical Psychology

1. Britt Klein
2. Azy Barak
3. Iris M. Engelhard
4. M. Rijkeboer
5. Abdulmotaleb El Saddik

In Cognitive Neuroscience

1. Ethan Perez
2. Samuel R. Bowman

In Cognitive Science & Psychology

1. Saurav Kadavath
2. Dario Amodei
3. Stanislav Fort
4. Tom B. Brown
5. Samuel R. Bowman

Citations in the corpus

• Red Teaming Language Models to Reduce Harms: Methods, Scaling Behaviors, and Lessons Learned (2022, methodology): “We were concerned about our task causing harm to the red team, so we reviewed available literature in Trust & Safety and related fields (e.g., [26, 15, 16, 49, 5, 27, 31]), as well as conducted a series of informational interviews with industry professionals in the field.”
• Defining Internet-Supported Therapeutic Interventions (2009, background): “…who played the computer game “ Tetris ” shortly after viewing traumatic images of injury reported a significant reduction in the frequency of distressing flash-backs, leading the researchers to suggest that the use of the game may hold promise as novel treatment approach to preventing PTSD [86].”
• Sensory Imagery in Craving: From Cognitive Psychology to New Treatments for Addiction (2012, neutral): “Drug & Alcohol Dependence, 109, 30-36.”
• Counting during recall: taxing of working memory and reduced vividness and emotionality of negative memories (2010, background): “Second, if the manipulation check (RT task plus counting) would have only taxed the PL, it is impossible to explain the correlations between the RT measure and the changes in the VSSP task (i.e. drops in vividness/ emotionality).”
• Serious Games and Gamification for Mental Health: Current Status and Promising Directions (2017, background): “Can playing the computer game “Tetris” reduce the build-up of flashbacks for trauma?”