Tetris and Tomatoes

If you’ve ever played Tetris (or any video game, really) for long periods of time, you’ve probably discovered that afterwards, as you’re drifting off to sleep, the imagery from the game dominates your imagination. This phenomenon been termed the “Tetris effect” by scientists who study such things (and make up fun sounding names for their discoveries so that they’ll be mentioned by the morning talk shows.)

Tetris actually seems to change the way the brain works, and how memories are created and stored. In one study on the phenomenon, volunteers were shown a traumatic video full of graphic imagery of real blood and guts. (Think of the drivers’ ed scare films you might have seen as a teen, or in traffic school, only with more gore, and more real blood.)

Afterwards, half the volunteers were allowed to play Tetris for 30 minutes, while the other half were forced to stay in their seats and do nothing.

Later, the subjects recorded the number of “flashbacks” they experienced over the following week. The volunteers who’d played Tetris reported significantly fewer than the control group, while the control group had so many bad dreams that they regretted signing up for the study.

So, the next time your spouse is mad at you for doing something stupid, recommend that they play Tetris for half and hour. (And then duck!)

I haven’t been playing Tetris, but I have been cutting tomatoes. When I close my eyes, I see tomatoes.