IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Tetris Leads to Thicker Cortex and More Efficient Brain, finds Study

Posted September 1, 2009 by James Brightman

According to researchers at the Mind Research Network (MRN), non-profit organization headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico and dedicated to advancing the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and brain injury, playing the classic puzzle game Tetris can have significant effects on the human brain. 

Over a three-month period, the researchers used brain imaging to study adolescent girls who played Tetris. They chose adolescents because they're "more likely to see changes in developing brains," and girls were chosen "because boys tend to have considerably more computer game experience and, therefore, may not show detectable brain change after game practice. All 26 girls in the study had limited computer game experience."

Interestingly, the girls who practiced did show greater brain efficiency, consistent with earlier studies. Furthermore, compared to controls, the girls that practiced also had a thicker cortex, but not in the same brain areas where efficiency occurred, which is curious.

"We were excited to see cortical thickness differences between the girls that practiced Tetris and those that did not," said Dr. Richard Haier, a co-investigator in the study and lead author of a 1992 study that found practicing Tetris led to greater brain efficiency. "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."

"Tetris, for the brain, is quite complex," he added. "It requires many cognitive processes like attention, hand/eye co-ordination, memory and visual spatial problem solving all working together very quickly. It's not surprising that we see changes throughout the brain."

"One of the most surprising findings of brain research in the last five years was that juggling practice increased gray matter in the motor areas of the brain," said Dr. Rex Jung, a co-investigator on the Tetris study and a clinical neuropsychologist. "We did our Tetris study to see if mental practice increased cortical thickness, a sign of more gray matter. If it did, it could be an explanation for why previous studies have shown that mental practice increases brain efficiency. More gray matter in an area could mean that the area would not need to work as hard during Tetris play."

"We hope to continue this work with larger, more diverse samples to investigate whether the brain changes we measured revert back when subjects stop playing Tetris," added Dr. Jung. "Similarly, we are interested if the skills learned in Tetris, and the associated brain changes, transfer to other cognitive areas such as working memory, processing speed, or spatial reasoning."

Also see:  Interview with Tetris Creator Alexey Pajitnov

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.