Playing Tetris increases brain's efficiency: Study

Scientists from the Mind Research Network, a non-profit organization based in Albuquerque, N.M., along with researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute used Tetris as a tool to reveal the positive changes the game can bring in the human brain.

Dr. Richard Haier a brain specialist and lead author of the study stated, “We picked it because it met all the requirements that we needed for a neuroimaging study of learning. It was simple to learn but it was very complex for the brain to play.”

Brain imaging used for investigation
With the help of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Dr Haier and his team examined the functional and structural changes in the brains of 26 girls who played Tetris for 30 minutes daily. They then compared them with girls in the control group who did not play the game.

Observations by researchers
Over a period of three months, the researchers observed the results were in keeping with the earlier studies that mental practice boosts brain’s efficiency.

The girls who played Tetris showed improved brain functioning and a thicker cortex, a region associated with planning of complex, coordinated movements.

However, the researchers found that the area of the brain that developed a structural change did not match the area where more efficiency was observed.

“We were excited to see cortical thickness differences between the girls that practiced Tetris and those that did not. But, it was surprising that these changes were not where we saw more efficiency. How a thicker cortex and increased brain efficiency are related remains a mystery,” declared Haier.

Dr. Sherif Karama, a co-investigator at the Montreal Neurological Institute, commented, "We showed that practice on a challenging visuospatial task has an impact on the structure of the cortex.”

He added, "[This is] in keeping with a growing body of scientific evidence showing that the brain can change with stimulation and is in striking contrast with the pervasive and only-recently outmoded belief that our brain’s structure is fixed."

Next step a larger and diverse study
The researchers hope to take the research to the next step and work with larger and more diverse participants to analyze whether the brain changes observed revert back when the participants stop playing Tetris.

"This study sets up next round of studies to try and see if each change leads to better performance on things other than Tetris," Haier said. "Maybe it helps as people's brains age, and as mental acuity falls off."

The study was funded by Blue Planet Software Inc. and has been published in the open-access journal BMC Research Notes.