Tetris: It's Good for the Brain

Its not that gamers arent clever, its the fact the most choose to use that brain power for the wrong reasons, like killing Zombies!

Killing zombies -> Save the world -> Save the world is a good reason to use your brain power.

As much as I hate to admit it, games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band actually translate better into brain stimulation than FPSs. Puzzle and RPG games (at least one's with some kind of strategy involved, mostly turn-based), I'm sure, are probably good brain stimulants as well.

so virus buster must be better? because you actually need to consider what color goes where... but in tetris there's shapes...hmmm

and thicker cortex's can delay alzheimer's as well right?

Use em of lose em noodles.

Wait, so packing groceries must make a person a super genius! It's like 3D tetris! We better start paying those guys 50,000 year, and in most cases bring them back to the grocery stores!

Ya ive always thought games have alot of beneficial perks, weirdly ive learned some money managemnt skills from games etc..and now im rich!!!!

I completely disagree with that but you do learn/employ a different set of skills. Playing games like left for dead is more than killing zombies, you have to work well and communicate well with your team toward a common goal, you also have to keep a keen sense of sight and hearing to find hidden items and hear enemies. There is also the strategy factor in them, some could argue that it is far more nuanced than any puzzle game.

I only like W@W for zombies... but tetris is cool in a 8 bit kinda game

adolescent girls? they set the bar pretty low didn't they? I

Not so sure about that, I'm not saying a FPS is better, but I am saying they are completely different and it would be hard to judge which is "better."
The music games are mostly just hitting buttons and getting the rhythm of a song.
You don't have the benefit of reading/writing the music like a musician will and the songs are the same the 2nd and 100th time you play them.
However, listening to music has always shown significant brain activity which is where most of it's benefit would be.

Most FPS's require a large amount of spatial ability for judging distances. Some frequently change according to the current situation forcing you to think your way through problems.
A large amount of the games are based on quick reactions and hand eye co-ordination though. Not life changing abilities but potentially useful, nonetheless.

Anyway, this is another reason why I don't understand the government trying to bring video games down. Our military sees it as a training (simulations) and a recruiting tool (America's Army). But I digress....

I would love to see these kinds of studies for ALL genres of games.

Once upon a time I was working a solo swing shift job that allowed me to play tetris for hours on end. Another worker on the night shift also discovered the same game on a shared PC. For weeks we would waste hours topping each other's high score. Our scores were getting so high that we barely had time to do our actual job. Then, unable to get any better, I discovered the high score table was in a text file. Deviously, I faked scores until my name was the only one. After a week of frustration by my rival (and my amusement) I finally 'fessed up to the deception. I guess it really does make you smarter.

No wonder I'm so smart! *chuckle*

You can only imagine what Crysis does to the brain...

I knew there was a good reason the Gameboy was more interesting than school

shite...... i play tetris all the time on my phone and still forget shite....must be all the tequila and vodka i sip on, killing the grey matter that tetris is building.

And the study claimed that the excessive playing will result in the grey matter coming out of your ears in a form of a licorice candy!

I have 2kb DOS tetris game I play

Why did the study only consist of adolescent girls? Would tetris have a negative effect on adolescent boys i wonder?

nah, the virgin nerd scientists prolly wanted to examine chicks only

True, but have you ever played Unreal Tournament? That's a constant "challenging visuospatial task" if ever there was one.

I'm not really surprised by this. But it's good to know.

I'm not surprised. There have been studies before that show crossword, sudoku, and tile games are all good for your brain. Pretty much anything that makes you think or problem solve is probably good for you. Video games are also good for reaction time and hand eye coordination.

This isn't surprising at all. It's pretty much already been established that games do this. Games like Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution require a lot of coordination. Most games require at least some degree of problem solving skills and/or creating thinking to advance. The Lego Star Wars games come to mind. Basically every area is a puzzle where you have to figure out how to advance.

Why does this dude's articles always have grammatical errors? Something to double check, especially in an article about brain function.

I am actually surprised nobody mentioned this before in the comments: it's not the time that you play tetris that makes the difference in the test girls, it's what they would do if they were not playing tetris. ALL the games and whatever challenges you to improve or even routinely solve puzzles instead of ... oo, facebooking all the time is good.

I thought "Brain Age" was pretty self-explanatory.

My recommendation: Fire'n'Ice. Excellent for every age!