14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that while a lot of the media is blaming videogames for all the evils of the modern society, from obesity to bad school results, some scientists are quietly working on showing the benefits that even the simplest of videogames can bestow upon the player.
A recent study conducted by the Mind Research Network has shown that playing the classic and well known Tetris can increase the amount of gray matter in the brains of test subjects.
The scientific outfit, based in Albuquerque, has scanned the brains of adolescent girls who have played Tetris for three months. Compared to the control group those engaged in the videogame have exhibited greater brain efficiency and a thicker cortex, which is evidence of more gray matter.
Dr. Richard Haier, who has already written one book about Tetris and the brain, said that “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.”
Apparently, those parts of the brain, which are involved in “planning of complex, coordinated movements” and those involved in “coordination of visual, tactile, auditory, and internal physiological information” have more brain matter while the increases in efficiency were registered in areas which have more to do with “critical thinking, reasoning, and language and processing.” It seems that playing Tetris activates all these areas, which is quite a feat considering the relative simplicity, in videogame terms, of the puzzle game.
If the benefits of playing Tetris are confirmed by other studies, then further studies should be conducted using more complex videogames. It would be interesting to see whether a complex role playing title like Planescape Torment might develop language skills more or whether playing a strategy title affects areas of the brain, which are involved in decision making and planning.