The Tetris Effect
Healing trauma one block at a time
In 1984, a Soviet software engineer named Alexey Pajitnov designed a simple game called Tetris. Blocks of different shapes tumbled from the top of the screen as the player scrambled to rotate and fit them into neat rows before the stack rose too high. It became an immediate sensation – cultural phenomenon as iconic as Pac-Man. But Pajitnov could never have imagined that decades later, his addictive game might serve as a lifeline for people haunted by traumatic memories they wish they could forget.
Imagine this: you’ve just survived a car accident. The adrenaline is still surging through your body and the image of blinding headlights keeps replaying in your mind. Now, instead of sitting in stunned silence or being bombarded with questions in the emergency room, you’re handed a game console. You’re instructed to play Tetris—not as a distraction, but as a way to soften the edges of those harrowing traumatic images before they’re burned into your memory.
I know it sounds wild, but a growing body of research suggests that playing Tetris shortly after a traumatic event can actually reduce the intensity of intrusive memories (Holmes et al., 2010; Iyadurai et al., 2018). This isn’t just about entertainment or escapism. It’s about science—an elegant combination of memory disruption and neuroplasticity that offers a surprising, low-tech solution to one of the most debilitating aspects of trauma. Researchers call it a “cognitive vaccine,” and while it might sound too good to be true, the evidence is stacking up.
The memory hack
When something traumatic happens, the brain works overtime to process and encode the event. This process, known as memory consolidation, is the brain’s attempt to make sense of the experience (McGaugh, 2000). Unfortunately, this same process can trap people in a cycle of intrusive flashbacks and vivid, distressing images. These aren’t just memories—they’re imprints, sticky and stubborn, replaying in high definition long after the event has passed.
But here’s where it gets interesting: right after a traumatic experience, there’s a brief window where those memories are fragile and malleable. Interrupting the brain’s consolidation process during this time can weaken the emotional impact of the memory, making it less likely to resurface in a vivid, intrusive way. And that’s exactly what Tetris does (James et al., 2015).
The game’s demands on visuospatial processing—mentally rotating, fitting, and stacking shapes—occupy the same cognitive resources the brain uses to replay visual memories. By focusing on Tetris, players unintentionally “crowd out” the vivid images of their trauma, leaving less room for those memories to take root (Holmes et al., 2010).
A game that tempers trauma
In one groundbreaking study, trauma survivors in an emergency department were asked to play Tetris within hours of their ordeal. Whether they’d been in car accidents, experienced assaults, or endured other traumatic events, the results were striking: weeks later, they reported fewer and less intense intrusive memories compared to those who didn’t play the game (Iyadurai et al., 2018). It was as though Tetris had stolen the brain’s chance to encode those memories in their full, painful clarity.
And it’s not just emergency situations. In another study, participants with PTSD played Tetris after recalling specific traumatic memories. The results were astonishing: not only did the frequency of those flashbacks drop, but the emotional weight of the memories seemed to diminish. Participants described feeling a sense of distance from their trauma, as if the memories had been defanged (Kessler et al., 2018).
How does it work?
So, how does it work? The answer lies in the brain’s extraordinary plasticity. Trauma affects regions like the hippocampus, which plays a crucial role in memory and emotional regulation. PTSD often shrinks the hippocampus, making it harder for the brain to contextualize fear and differentiate past threats from present safety (Gilbertson et al., 2002). Remarkably, studies have shown that playing Tetris can actually increase hippocampal volume (Butler et al., 2020). It’s a kind of mental gym for the brain, helping it rebuild the structures needed to process and manage memories more effectively.
It’s important to remember that timing is everything. For the intervention to work, the game needs to be played within hours of experiencing or recalling a traumatic memory, when the memory is most malleable. This approach, known as memory reconsolidation, gives the brain a chance to rewrite the memory in a less distressing form. Tetris, with its immersive and demanding nature, is uniquely suited to this task (James et al., 2015).
Looking Ahead
The idea of using Tetris as a trauma intervention feels almost too simple to be true, yet the implications are noteworthy. Imagine first responders equipped with gaming consoles, offering survivors a chance to lessen the psychological scars of their experiences. Picture a world where therapy includes not just talk and medication but also a daily dose of videogaming.
References
Butler, O., Herr, K., Willmund, G., Gallinat, J., & Kühn, S. (2020). Trauma, treatment and Tetris: Video gaming increases hippocampal volume in male patients with combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 45(4), 279–287. https://doi.org/10.1503/jpn.190027
Gilbertson, M. W., Shenton, M. E., Ciszewski, A., Kasai, K., Lasko, N. B., Orr, S. P., & Pitman, R. K. (2002). Smaller hippocampal volume predicts pathologic vulnerability to psychological trauma. Nature Neuroscience, 5(11), 1242–1247. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn958
Holmes, E. A., James, E. L., Kilford, E. J., & Deeprose, C. (2010). Key steps in developing a cognitive vaccine against traumatic flashbacks: Visuospatial Tetris versus verbal pub quiz. PLoS ONE, 5(11), e13706. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013706
Iyadurai, L., Blackwell, S. E., Meiser-Stedman, R., et al. (2018). Preventing intrusive memories after trauma via a brief intervention involving Tetris computer game play in the emergency department: A proof-of-concept randomized controlled trial. Molecular Psychiatry, 23, 674–682. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2017.23
James, E. L., Bonsall, M. B., Hoppitt, L., et al. (2015). Computer game play reduces intrusive memories of experimental trauma via reconsolidation-update mechanisms. Psychological Science, 26(8), 1201–1215. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615583071
Kessler, H., Holmes, E. A., Blackwell, S. E., et al. (2018). Reducing intrusive memories of trauma using a visuospatial interference intervention with inpatients with PTSD. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 86(12), 1076–1090. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000340
McGaugh, J. L. (2000). Memory—a century of consolidation. Science, 287(5451), 248–251. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.287.5451.248
I want to know how tetris might affect someone who has dissociated during or right after a traumatic event or if there's any interplay there at all.