A single dose psychological intervention, which includes using the computer game Tetris, can prevent the unpleasant, intrusive memories that develop in some people after suffering a traumatic event.
When you see something traumatic, your brain will over the next few hours create images of the traumatic event. These images will come back to you as flashbacks over the years. Playing a game that requires high focus on visual details prevents the brain from creating those images, and as a result you’ll get less (or not at all) flashbacks after the traumatic event.
I think you’ve summed it up brilliantly here. I’m sure anyone who’s ever played a game like Tetris a little too long will remember closing their eyes to go to sleep and still seeing tetronimos! So I guess it pushes everything else out of the ‘RAM’ of our visual memory, including the traumatic stuff. No room for this horrid memory, the mind-cupboard is full of tetronimos now
When you see something traumatic, your brain will over the next few hours create images of the traumatic event. These images will come back to you as flashbacks over the years. Playing a game that requires high focus on visual details prevents the brain from creating those images, and as a result you’ll get less (or not at all) flashbacks after the traumatic event.
I think you’ve summed it up brilliantly here. I’m sure anyone who’s ever played a game like Tetris a little too long will remember closing their eyes to go to sleep and still seeing tetronimos! So I guess it pushes everything else out of the ‘RAM’ of our visual memory, including the traumatic stuff. No room for this horrid memory, the mind-cupboard is full of tetronimos now
This is why after a traumatic event it is advised to do stuff to keep the brain occupied.
It can be Tetris or anything else, anything that can keep the brain busy.