Researchers asked participants to watch a 12-minute traumatic film and record each time they had intrusive memory for a week. “[But] you lack the smell or tactile association of the event”.
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Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge who are trying to find ways to assist people who have been through recent traumatic experiences believe that the popular Tetris game can help prevent the forming of PTSD after an unsettling event.
With all the colours and constant movement, Tetris is a game that requires players to constantly process a stream of visual stimuli, which in turn reduces the strength of traumatic memories.
Now, New Scientist reports that a study by the same team shows that playing Tetris can still help.
“From Marcel Proust’s example of sudden childhood recall after eating a madeleine to flashbacks depicted in war films, involuntary memory has long held fascination”, the researchers explain. It is different when you are watching a traumatic event on television compared to those who experience the trauma first-hand, although the same types of brain mechanisms and chemicals are responsible for the way the person relates to the trauma.
But it’s unlikely that people would be able to receive such immediate treatment following a traumatic event in the real world, so Holmes and colleagues wanted to see whether they might be able to use a similar cognitive procedure to change older, already established memories a day later.
In addition, Massachusetts-based psychologist Jaine Darwin, who specializes in trauma and crisis intervention, notes that the study is interesting. There were 56 people that were used in this study.
The study authors admit that the study has several limitations, for one, the fact that seeing traumatic images on TV can not produce the same emotional response as the actual experience would. “It is time to profit from advances in the science of memory to devise innovative psychological treatments”. “Procedures that could alter a consolidated trauma memory are critical for reducing post-traumatic symptoms”. She also noted mental health professionals are now working with patients to help them separate themselves from the event so they can view and grasp the trauma from a safe space. “Conversely, could computer gaming be affecting intrusions of everyday events?”
Darwin added the study needs much more research and proof before it becomes applicable for patients.
The group that played Tetris had more than 50 percent fewer intrusive memories of the disturbing footage than the control group.
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JANUARY 07: The M7 MultiPAD by Cydle displays the game Tetris at the 2011 worldwide Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center JANUARY 7, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. And because memory is so malleable, long-term psychotherapy is often successful.
