1 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:05,920 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stop 2 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stop to Blow your Mind. 3 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:17,119 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. In 4 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:20,240 Speaker 1: Today's episode is part two of a two part episode 5 00:00:20,239 --> 00:00:23,640 Speaker 1: about the science of Tetris, really the science of Tetris, 6 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: get also the history and philosophy of Tetris, because, as 7 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 1: I said in the last episode, I have a very 8 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:36,479 Speaker 1: very strong intuition that Tetris is not just an invented 9 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:40,200 Speaker 1: artifact of the work of human hands and human minds, 10 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:45,120 Speaker 1: but is somehow a natural, fundamental outgrowth of the phantasmagorical 11 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:50,199 Speaker 1: blood magic of the universe. It comes from the cosmos itself. 12 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 1: It's not just something we made. It was here, and 13 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:59,400 Speaker 1: in nineteen four the creator of Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, discovered it. 14 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: I like that the idea of discovering Tetris as this, uh, 15 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:09,320 Speaker 1: this sort of dimension of of mathematical perfection, Yeah, underlying 16 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:12,200 Speaker 1: reality totally. And in the last episode we talked a 17 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: little bit about that, about where Tetris came from and 18 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:17,800 Speaker 1: its influences, and then about the Tetris effect. This uh, 19 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:22,320 Speaker 1: this syndrome, this experience commonly reported by Tetris players, where 20 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:25,360 Speaker 1: they where it sort of takes over their minds. They 21 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:28,640 Speaker 1: see Tetris in everything throughout the world, They hallucinate it, 22 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:31,600 Speaker 1: they dream about it, And we talked about some possible 23 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:36,000 Speaker 1: explanations for that, as well as how Tetris skills develop 24 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:39,759 Speaker 1: in the brain and the interesting fact that that people 25 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:44,960 Speaker 1: who cannot form episodic memories can still form hallucination recall 26 00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:50,040 Speaker 1: for Tetris that counterintuitively, expert Tetris players use less brain 27 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:53,480 Speaker 1: energy than novice Tetris players at higher levels of play. 28 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 1: So there's a lot that's very fascinating and weird and 29 00:01:56,960 --> 00:02:01,320 Speaker 1: mysterious about the game Tetris itself. But today we wanted 30 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:05,040 Speaker 1: to talk about how some of this science of tetris, uh, 31 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,359 Speaker 1: how it works as a game, and how Tetris can 32 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:13,160 Speaker 1: be used to solve problems in the real world. Yeah, 33 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:15,760 Speaker 1: and a lot of this, uh the first portion of 34 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: this episode, a lot of it relates to just why 35 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:21,520 Speaker 1: do we love it? So? Why is it so satisfying 36 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:25,480 Speaker 1: to play tetris? Um and uh, and the the science 37 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:27,679 Speaker 1: behind us is it's a lot more interesting than you 38 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:30,080 Speaker 1: might think. It's it it goes pretty deep into just 39 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:33,239 Speaker 1: how we think and how we process the world. Absolutely, 40 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:35,079 Speaker 1: So if you haven't listened to part one, go back 41 00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:38,359 Speaker 1: listen to part one, uh first, and then come and 42 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:42,600 Speaker 1: join us again here where we will continue the cosmic 43 00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:46,960 Speaker 1: journey of Tetris and clear those lines again and again 44 00:02:47,880 --> 00:02:51,760 Speaker 1: and again. All right, So why do we love Tetris? 45 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:53,720 Speaker 1: Why don't we play it so much? Why did it 46 00:02:53,919 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: have such an impact to begin with? Well, we should 47 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:58,799 Speaker 1: back up and ask why we play any games so much? 48 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:01,120 Speaker 1: Why do we love any game? I mean, as we 49 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:05,040 Speaker 1: observed in the last episode, there there's a difference between 50 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:08,680 Speaker 1: a really good game and a not so good game. 51 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:10,720 Speaker 1: And it's not just I mean, these days a lot 52 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:13,280 Speaker 1: of people might refer to things because of the complexity 53 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:16,800 Speaker 1: of games on newer generations, and things like graphics and 54 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:20,400 Speaker 1: story and you know, because you have these action adventure 55 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:23,600 Speaker 1: games that are that are so complex and all that. 56 00:03:22,919 --> 00:03:27,200 Speaker 1: There's more, you're immersing yourself in a an unreal world. 57 00:03:27,320 --> 00:03:30,320 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, So ignoring all that and just getting 58 00:03:30,320 --> 00:03:34,320 Speaker 1: back to the basics of simple types of games and gameplay, 59 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:39,880 Speaker 1: puzzle games. Uh, playing Tetris versus playing I don't know, 60 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:44,320 Speaker 1: what's another early puzzle game, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre video game, 61 00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:49,520 Speaker 1: on which did really exist. Don't don't bother looking at it, 62 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:53,680 Speaker 1: field just get sad. Yeah, w wanted. Why are these games? So? 63 00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:56,000 Speaker 1: Why don't we immerse ourselves in? And how does this work? 64 00:03:56,120 --> 00:04:00,720 Speaker 1: One idea that seems pretty strongly supported is that very 65 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:05,360 Speaker 1: rewarding and enjoyable game play and game mechanics come from 66 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:09,640 Speaker 1: the psychological process that's been described under the term cognitive 67 00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:16,400 Speaker 1: flow flow. Yeah. Yeah, at heart, any good game is 68 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:20,479 Speaker 1: tapping into cognitive flow. As Sean Baron broke down in 69 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 1: a two thousand twelve Gama Sutra article, it breaks down 70 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:28,159 Speaker 1: as follows and Tetris boils this down perfectly to a 71 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:32,680 Speaker 1: highly concentrated mental gaming experience. You have concrete goals and 72 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:37,960 Speaker 1: manageable rules, plus goals that fit player capabilities, plus clear 73 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:42,080 Speaker 1: and timely feedback, plus an elimination of distractions, and this 74 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:46,960 Speaker 1: equals cognitive flow. Yeah. So it's a game essentially where 75 00:04:47,279 --> 00:04:50,760 Speaker 1: you understand how to play, You can play, you have 76 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:55,000 Speaker 1: the skill. It's yet it's challenging enough that it's not boring. 77 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:58,840 Speaker 1: You're constantly getting feedback on how well you're doing, and 78 00:04:58,880 --> 00:05:03,320 Speaker 1: there's not extreme a stuff going on. It's just perfect focus, 79 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:08,960 Speaker 1: zeroing in on a perfect brain consuming task that is 80 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:12,960 Speaker 1: just challenging enough to always keep you engaged. Yeah. Now 81 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:16,080 Speaker 1: that's not to say that cognitive flow is just a 82 00:05:16,120 --> 00:05:19,000 Speaker 1: result of gaming EXPERI yeah, we cure it in our 83 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 1: daily lives. Be it in your work if you're lucky, 84 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:24,159 Speaker 1: or you know, in your hobbies, or even in just 85 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:28,839 Speaker 1: random chores that you have down, you know, skill wise. 86 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:32,760 Speaker 1: Um in the term itself comes from psychologist Mihi. Chick 87 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:36,680 Speaker 1: sent me high, the Hungarian psychology professor who pioneered the 88 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: study of cognitive flow. I like this guy's research. I've 89 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 1: read about it before, and it's interesting to me because 90 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:46,640 Speaker 1: this is what people would, I think often call positive psychology. 91 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:50,480 Speaker 1: So much of what is studied in psychology or psychiatry 92 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:56,560 Speaker 1: deals with people who are having less than optimal experiences. 93 00:05:57,240 --> 00:05:59,920 Speaker 1: And this is an attempt to study, well, what's going 94 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:04,320 Speaker 1: on when humans are just really at their peak mental experience, 95 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:08,160 Speaker 1: when they're feeling great, when things are going well inside 96 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:10,839 Speaker 1: their heads. What's happening there? And and and the thing he 97 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:14,279 Speaker 1: identified is that a key to a sort of happy 98 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:19,560 Speaker 1: existence or a happy experience is this process of flow. Yeah, indeed, 99 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:21,960 Speaker 1: and uh, you know, it's interesting looking back to the 100 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:26,840 Speaker 1: previous episode where the stick Gold study started off and 101 00:06:26,960 --> 00:06:29,799 Speaker 1: ended up getting into the Tetris area by considering people 102 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:33,320 Speaker 1: who engaged in um in rock climbing, and then they 103 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:37,800 Speaker 1: would perceive rock climbing later. Uh and and overall his 104 00:06:37,839 --> 00:06:41,040 Speaker 1: study was about looking at people who engage in novel 105 00:06:41,080 --> 00:06:43,800 Speaker 1: physical or mental activities for extended periods of time and 106 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:47,240 Speaker 1: how they often experienced a hallucinatory replay of the activity. 107 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:50,200 Speaker 1: And with the check semi hi, we see rock climbing 108 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:53,760 Speaker 1: come up again because as an avid rock climber, that's 109 00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 1: where he first took note of this special feeling in 110 00:06:56,880 --> 00:07:00,200 Speaker 1: his own experience that he got while inching his way 111 00:07:00,279 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: up at challenging rock face. He began thinking about it 112 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:06,760 Speaker 1: in terms of his psychology studies, and he laid it 113 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:08,800 Speaker 1: out pretty much as we've been discussing that flow is 114 00:07:08,839 --> 00:07:13,720 Speaker 1: about having set goals, having uh a self contained universe. 115 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:16,480 Speaker 1: So you especially see this in gaming right where they're 116 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: something like Tetris. The rules, the space, it's all pretty 117 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:24,120 Speaker 1: well defined. There's there's less ambiguity. You get immediate feedback 118 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:27,600 Speaker 1: if you're doing it right. Contains a manageable challenge. It's hard, 119 00:07:27,640 --> 00:07:30,240 Speaker 1: but you can do it. Sense of control over the situation, 120 00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:33,040 Speaker 1: at least until you reach the upper levels uh, And 121 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:37,920 Speaker 1: you're completely involved in what you're doing. And so this 122 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:42,760 Speaker 1: results in a sense of ecstasy um, great interclarity, a 123 00:07:42,840 --> 00:07:45,600 Speaker 1: confidence that what you're doing is doable, and then you 124 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:48,240 Speaker 1: have the skills to tackle it, a sense of serenity, 125 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:52,640 Speaker 1: a sense of timelessness, and intrinsic motivation to keep going. 126 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:55,720 Speaker 1: It becomes fun in itself. I mean, there's no reason 127 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:59,480 Speaker 1: you have to play a tetrisa. You know, nobody, nobody's 128 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:03,640 Speaker 1: give being you tangible rewards or punishments based on how 129 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:07,520 Speaker 1: many lines you clear. But it becomes intrinsically motivating. There's 130 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:10,880 Speaker 1: something about the activity itself that's pleasing enough that you 131 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:12,920 Speaker 1: have to go on. And it shuts down the chatter 132 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:16,120 Speaker 1: and your brain. It shuts down that default mode network, 133 00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:19,160 Speaker 1: all those little voices and the that are worrying about 134 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:23,000 Speaker 1: the path or the future. It all goes dull as 135 00:08:23,080 --> 00:08:26,440 Speaker 1: your brain uh tackles the problem at hand, be it 136 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:30,080 Speaker 1: climbing a rock, working on an article, mowing the yard, 137 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:33,600 Speaker 1: or playing tetris. Yeah, totally. So if you look at 138 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:36,760 Speaker 1: all of the conditions that must be present to create 139 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:40,080 Speaker 1: the optimal sense of flow. I think Tetris is almost 140 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:44,400 Speaker 1: perfectly designed to satisfy them. Like, it's hard to think 141 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:49,040 Speaker 1: of a cleaner distillation of exactly what those conditions are. 142 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:54,280 Speaker 1: The clear goals, stack them, clear lines, manageable rules, it's 143 00:08:54,520 --> 00:08:58,439 Speaker 1: absolutely clear what's going on in Tetris. Uh. Tetris adjusts 144 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:02,400 Speaker 1: itself to your capability. So at the beginning it's easy. Uh. 145 00:09:02,559 --> 00:09:04,720 Speaker 1: If you are a very good player, you can move 146 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:09,120 Speaker 1: up to higher difficulties pretty quickly. Gives you an adjustment period. 147 00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 1: But the difficulty changes and tracks with you as you play. 148 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:15,440 Speaker 1: You know, as you go up higher, you get farther, 149 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:18,840 Speaker 1: it gets harder and more challenging. There's feedback and that 150 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:22,319 Speaker 1: you can like. The music is an interesting feedback thing 151 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:26,559 Speaker 1: in Texas, Texas, I say Texas again. In Tetris. As 152 00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:29,200 Speaker 1: you keep stacking higher, I don't know if you remember that, 153 00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:32,760 Speaker 1: the music gets faster. It's letting you know, okay. And 154 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:36,520 Speaker 1: of course there's very obvious visual feedback. You know, you 155 00:09:36,520 --> 00:09:38,960 Speaker 1: you can clearly see as you're getting towards the ceiling 156 00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:43,120 Speaker 1: of the screen, this is not what you want and 157 00:09:44,360 --> 00:09:47,880 Speaker 1: what is there that's extraneous, I mean nothing, It's it's 158 00:09:47,920 --> 00:09:51,320 Speaker 1: all there. And uh, and of course it works even 159 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:54,040 Speaker 1: better if you can just uh sort of like put 160 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:57,840 Speaker 1: a black blanket over your head and tape your eyes 161 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:01,360 Speaker 1: directly to the Tetris screen and so that nobody can 162 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:03,680 Speaker 1: walk in and say, like, hey, there's a fire, you 163 00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:06,160 Speaker 1: need to have activate the building. I mean, you just 164 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:09,720 Speaker 1: you're there, You're in the zone. But there's some other 165 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:13,839 Speaker 1: theories we've come across that that help explain exactly why 166 00:10:13,960 --> 00:10:17,880 Speaker 1: Tetris feels like such a perfect game for our brains. 167 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:20,959 Speaker 1: And one of the ones I wanted to mention was 168 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:25,440 Speaker 1: actually something I saw alluded to in a brain Craft video. 169 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:28,000 Speaker 1: Some of our periscope followers. We were talking to him 170 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:31,040 Speaker 1: last Friday, and we mentioned that we were going to 171 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:33,000 Speaker 1: do this episode and they said, oh, you should watch 172 00:10:33,080 --> 00:10:36,200 Speaker 1: the Braincraft videos. So there, I think they're PBS. Yea 173 00:10:36,320 --> 00:10:38,600 Speaker 1: PBS is behind it. I watched this as well. I 174 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:41,640 Speaker 1: was entertaining, yeah, and so they but they mentioned something 175 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:45,280 Speaker 1: called the Zigarnic effect in reference to Tetris. So what 176 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:48,400 Speaker 1: is the deal with this? Okay, so the Zigarnic effect 177 00:10:48,559 --> 00:10:51,679 Speaker 1: comes to us again. We looked to UH to Soviet thinking. 178 00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:55,720 Speaker 1: Here it comes from Soviet to psychologist and psychiatrist Bluma 179 00:10:55,800 --> 00:11:00,280 Speaker 1: Wolvovna Zigarnick. She lived from nineteen dred to nineteen eight 180 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:04,800 Speaker 1: and she first observed this in the nineteen twenties. UM, 181 00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:07,439 Speaker 1: and it basically boils down to this. It's the it's 182 00:11:07,440 --> 00:11:12,199 Speaker 1: the psychological tendency for us to remember incomplete or interrupted 183 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:17,199 Speaker 1: tasks better than complete ones. UM and Tetris. Of course, 184 00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:21,160 Speaker 1: to tie that in is a continuous stream of incomplete task, 185 00:11:21,800 --> 00:11:25,960 Speaker 1: constant sense of achievement, but also a constantly unachieved finish. 186 00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:28,880 Speaker 1: As we mentioned in the previous episode, there's no hey, 187 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:31,559 Speaker 1: you won screen in Tetris. It just keeps getting harder 188 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:34,240 Speaker 1: and harder and harder until you perish. And of course 189 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:37,760 Speaker 1: it's made up of lots of little individual incomplete tasks, 190 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:40,200 Speaker 1: right because every time there's a gap in a row 191 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:43,720 Speaker 1: in Tetris, that's a little thing that there's a little 192 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:45,560 Speaker 1: flag in your brain that says I need to go 193 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:48,760 Speaker 1: back and fix that, and I'll get there eventually. So 194 00:11:48,920 --> 00:11:54,480 Speaker 1: it's a one huge incomplete task forever being incomplete, made 195 00:11:54,559 --> 00:11:59,120 Speaker 1: up of an infinite number of incomplete tasks. UH. It's 196 00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:02,120 Speaker 1: almost as if this was in mind when it was designed. Yeah, 197 00:12:02,760 --> 00:12:05,640 Speaker 1: so there's a Garnic effect, of course, plays into the 198 00:12:05,679 --> 00:12:08,040 Speaker 1: typical human drive to finish what we started, to see 199 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:12,320 Speaker 1: things through to the finish, and the associative associated negative 200 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:15,240 Speaker 1: psychological renovocations of doing the opposite. You know, where you're 201 00:12:15,400 --> 00:12:18,240 Speaker 1: you're haunted by that model airplane you never finished, or 202 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:20,960 Speaker 1: that novel that you have have completed, or you know, 203 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:24,679 Speaker 1: or whatever chores around the house are, and god knows, 204 00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:27,720 Speaker 1: when you have a house, there's always some something that's 205 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:31,720 Speaker 1: not quite finished about everything. And how those just continue 206 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:37,040 Speaker 1: to stick in your mind? Um. There's a one explanation 207 00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:39,080 Speaker 1: of the Zigaronic effect that I found that I thought 208 00:12:39,120 --> 00:12:43,200 Speaker 1: was pretty uh, pretty nice comes from Roy Bambinster and 209 00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:46,160 Speaker 1: Brad Bushman in their two thousand and eight textbooks Social 210 00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:49,560 Speaker 1: Psychology and Human Nature. They said, the Zigarnic effect is 211 00:12:49,559 --> 00:12:53,480 Speaker 1: a tendency to experience automatic, intrusive thoughts about a goal 212 00:12:53,720 --> 00:12:56,360 Speaker 1: that one has pursued, but the pursuit of which has 213 00:12:56,360 --> 00:12:59,480 Speaker 1: been interrupted. That is, if you start working toward a 214 00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 1: goal fail to get their, thoughts about that goal will 215 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:05,760 Speaker 1: keep popping into your mind while you're doing other things, 216 00:13:06,120 --> 00:13:09,000 Speaker 1: as if to remind you to get back on track 217 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:12,200 Speaker 1: and finish reaching that goal. So not only is this 218 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:16,040 Speaker 1: something that is related to the motivation we have to 219 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:18,600 Speaker 1: keep playing Tetris, but it also might sort of explain 220 00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:21,720 Speaker 1: what we talked about in the previous episode because this 221 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:25,960 Speaker 1: mentions intrusive thoughts about the incomplete task. So in the 222 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:28,360 Speaker 1: last episode we talked about the Tetris effect where people 223 00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:32,440 Speaker 1: experience dreams and hallucinations about Tetris if Tetris is never 224 00:13:32,520 --> 00:13:37,000 Speaker 1: finished yet it's always this intrinsically motivating task that remains 225 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:39,840 Speaker 1: incomplete in the mind. It kind of makes sense through 226 00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:43,600 Speaker 1: this method that it would keep jumping up into into 227 00:13:43,640 --> 00:13:46,680 Speaker 1: your thoughts. Yeah, yeah, I think it plays nicely into 228 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:51,040 Speaker 1: into just trying to figure out Tetris syndrome, the Tetris 229 00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:54,360 Speaker 1: effect in general. And then there's a broader lesson here 230 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:58,599 Speaker 1: though that applies well beyond games, and that is that students, 231 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:01,319 Speaker 1: be it an you be an official student, or just 232 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:04,520 Speaker 1: somebody studying up on something in your life. Uh, it 233 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:07,200 Speaker 1: pays to suspend your studies, to take a break, to 234 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:09,560 Speaker 1: come back to it and not try to wipe it 235 00:14:09,559 --> 00:14:13,480 Speaker 1: all out in one massive cramming session. Absolutely, I find 236 00:14:13,480 --> 00:14:16,320 Speaker 1: this to be extremely useful in my own work. So 237 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:21,240 Speaker 1: if I'm trying to uh to think clearly about maybe 238 00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:24,480 Speaker 1: an episode I'm researching or something like that, I find 239 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:29,120 Speaker 1: it's way more useful to uh to start on it 240 00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:32,560 Speaker 1: before I end work for one day. So if it's 241 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,040 Speaker 1: you know, five thirty and I'm trying to quit work 242 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:39,200 Speaker 1: for the day, um, and I'm at the end of 243 00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:42,200 Speaker 1: one task, it's better to do ten percent of the 244 00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:44,600 Speaker 1: next task and then come back to it the next day. 245 00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:47,040 Speaker 1: My thoughts about it are gonna be a lot clearer 246 00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:51,280 Speaker 1: than to break from work in between when tasks are 247 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:54,000 Speaker 1: concluded and when the next one starts. Yeah, and generally 248 00:14:54,120 --> 00:14:56,560 Speaker 1: also if you have some sleep in between, then you're 249 00:14:56,640 --> 00:14:59,720 Speaker 1: you're going to to consolidate those memories. All that working 250 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:02,000 Speaker 1: is working in your favor as well. But also it's 251 00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:05,000 Speaker 1: pointed out a lot that if the if the task 252 00:15:05,080 --> 00:15:09,000 Speaker 1: is intimidating, just started, because if you just started, then 253 00:15:09,160 --> 00:15:12,800 Speaker 1: you get to benefit from the Zigarnic effect, because that's 254 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:15,360 Speaker 1: effect is going to be in play to encourage you 255 00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:18,320 Speaker 1: to come back and work more on it. So beginnings 256 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:21,320 Speaker 1: are difficult, but begin and then take a break and 257 00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:23,920 Speaker 1: then come back. Yeah, This isn't gonna become the self 258 00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:27,200 Speaker 1: help show, but but try that one at least. Yeah, 259 00:15:26,960 --> 00:15:31,720 Speaker 1: I I highly advocate that strategy. Get it started, it'll 260 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:36,880 Speaker 1: be easier. Another thing that is UM. I can't remember 261 00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:39,040 Speaker 1: exactly where I came across this, but I feel like 262 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:42,440 Speaker 1: it was in UH. It was in something that was 263 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:46,280 Speaker 1: linked to from that Braincraft video. But but anyway, however 264 00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:49,880 Speaker 1: I came across this. Another thing that I saw referenced 265 00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:55,240 Speaker 1: UH with regard to Tetris is the idea of epistemic action. 266 00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:58,480 Speaker 1: And I had actually never heard about this phenomena before, 267 00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:02,040 Speaker 1: but I it turned out to be pretty interesting. So 268 00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:06,720 Speaker 1: in nine David Kirsch and Paul Maglio published a paper 269 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:11,760 Speaker 1: in Cognitive Science called on Distinguishing Epistemic and Pragmatic Action, 270 00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:15,120 Speaker 1: and Kirsh and Maglio make the distinction between two different 271 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:19,400 Speaker 1: kinds of actions that a person can perform. So you've 272 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:23,760 Speaker 1: got pragmatic action, and this is one. It's an external 273 00:16:23,760 --> 00:16:27,600 Speaker 1: action that changes something in the external world in furtherance 274 00:16:27,760 --> 00:16:31,440 Speaker 1: of you achieving a goal. So if you are stranded 275 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:34,840 Speaker 1: on a tiny island and starving, throwing a rock at 276 00:16:34,880 --> 00:16:38,360 Speaker 1: a seagull would be a pragmatic action. To unlock that 277 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:42,680 Speaker 1: seagull's delicious meat. Or you could make a much smaller action. 278 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:46,160 Speaker 1: You could say, press a button while playing tetris to 279 00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:48,920 Speaker 1: move a Tetris piece with the goal of actually moving 280 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:50,440 Speaker 1: it to the spot where you want to place it. 281 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:54,080 Speaker 1: You're just doing an action to reach a goal. But 282 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:56,760 Speaker 1: then they distinguish this from a different kind of action, 283 00:16:56,880 --> 00:16:59,600 Speaker 1: a different kind of external action, which is what they 284 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:04,560 Speaker 1: call astemic action, and this is making a change to 285 00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:08,560 Speaker 1: the world in order to simplify a problem solving task. 286 00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:13,200 Speaker 1: So imagine you remember those spot the difference puzzles and 287 00:17:13,320 --> 00:17:15,400 Speaker 1: children's books, you know what I'm talking about. They'll show 288 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:18,520 Speaker 1: you two pictures of a scene. One's Mickey Mouse, you know, 289 00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:21,960 Speaker 1: roller skating, and the next one's Mickey Mouse roller skating, 290 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,520 Speaker 1: but the clock hands are pointing to a different time 291 00:17:25,359 --> 00:17:27,639 Speaker 1: and something like that. And let's say you've got a 292 00:17:27,760 --> 00:17:31,760 Speaker 1: children's work book with with two of these on different pages. Um, 293 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:33,840 Speaker 1: and what you do is you tear out one of 294 00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:36,679 Speaker 1: the pages and then hold the pictures right next to 295 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:41,040 Speaker 1: each other. That would be an epistemic action, because they're 296 00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:44,440 Speaker 1: what you're doing is an action that is really designed 297 00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:47,720 Speaker 1: to change the nature of a problem inside your head 298 00:17:48,119 --> 00:17:51,400 Speaker 1: to simplify the task. So when you see them next 299 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:54,000 Speaker 1: to each other, or maybe you um lay them on 300 00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:55,520 Speaker 1: top of each other and hold it up to a 301 00:17:55,600 --> 00:17:59,320 Speaker 1: light to see what's different. In the two pages, you're 302 00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:03,480 Speaker 1: using external action to reduce the mental complexity of a task. 303 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:07,159 Speaker 1: And they looked at Tetris in this paper actually and 304 00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:14,120 Speaker 1: pointed out how experience Tetris players use epistemoic action in Tetris, 305 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:16,800 Speaker 1: and this is the way it works. You've got a 306 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:18,760 Speaker 1: block falling down and you want to fit it in, 307 00:18:19,680 --> 00:18:23,639 Speaker 1: and instead of doing all the work of flipping the 308 00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:26,480 Speaker 1: block around in your head to see where it would fit, 309 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:30,960 Speaker 1: the players flip it. They physically flip it, plus press 310 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,879 Speaker 1: the button to flip it to offload some of the 311 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:37,119 Speaker 1: cognitive work required to see where it would fit. So 312 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:41,760 Speaker 1: by visually seeing exactly what the block looks like in 313 00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:46,760 Speaker 1: all its orientations, you can see, okay, here's exactly where 314 00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:48,840 Speaker 1: it would fit without having to flip it in your mind, 315 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:53,240 Speaker 1: thus freeing up some mental resources to look at what's 316 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:56,840 Speaker 1: the next block in the in the preview bar. So 317 00:18:56,840 --> 00:19:00,560 Speaker 1: so essentially it is using physical action and to make 318 00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:04,320 Speaker 1: mental work easier. They say epistemic action can be used 319 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:08,280 Speaker 1: to reduce the memory involved in a mental computation. UH, 320 00:19:08,320 --> 00:19:10,560 Speaker 1: it can be used to reduce the number of steps 321 00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:14,280 Speaker 1: involved in completing a mental computation, or it can be 322 00:19:14,359 --> 00:19:19,160 Speaker 1: used to reduce the probability of error in a mental computation. UM. 323 00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:22,560 Speaker 1: And so if you follow this idea, you can conclude 324 00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:26,359 Speaker 1: that when you play Tetris, it's again kind of a 325 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:29,840 Speaker 1: perfect back and forth between body and mind. It creates 326 00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:36,280 Speaker 1: a constant, flowing, rapid feedback cooperation between mental problem solving 327 00:19:36,720 --> 00:19:40,240 Speaker 1: and then this external epistemic action. You use the body 328 00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:43,040 Speaker 1: to simple simplify a problem. You press the button, flip 329 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:45,520 Speaker 1: the block, see where it would fit. Then you use 330 00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:48,560 Speaker 1: your mind to solve the problem. Then you use the 331 00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:52,000 Speaker 1: body again to execute the solution, and you just keep 332 00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:55,720 Speaker 1: going back and forth on repeat. Alright, so once again 333 00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:59,560 Speaker 1: we see a manner in which Tetris illuminates how our 334 00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:05,040 Speaker 1: brain works. And we've discussed they just almost perfect way 335 00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:08,960 Speaker 1: that Tetris captures our mind. So we're gonna take a 336 00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:11,280 Speaker 1: quick break and when we come back, we're gonna explore 337 00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:16,119 Speaker 1: some some of the applications that that scientists have have 338 00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:19,760 Speaker 1: explored have actually looked into and some some very real 339 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:24,760 Speaker 1: possibilities for tetris as a as a treatment option for 340 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:37,280 Speaker 1: a few different ailments. All right, we're back. Okay, So Robert, 341 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:41,840 Speaker 1: we've talked about the tetris cure. What can you cure 342 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:46,639 Speaker 1: with tetris potentially at least because I was quite surprised 343 00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:49,840 Speaker 1: to see some of this research, but once I read 344 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,600 Speaker 1: into it, it started to make a lot of sense 345 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:56,800 Speaker 1: to me that you could potentially use tetris in maybe 346 00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:59,879 Speaker 1: in place of drugs or other types of therapies and 347 00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:03,240 Speaker 1: lots of scenarios. Yeah, because we've again just think back 348 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:07,440 Speaker 1: to all the ways we've discussed in which tetris captures 349 00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:12,160 Speaker 1: your mind, How it plays into two different modes of memory. Um, 350 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:15,840 Speaker 1: how it uh it's got the skeleton key to a 351 00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:18,280 Speaker 1: deep part of your brain. Yeah, it's it's involved in 352 00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:20,959 Speaker 1: flow state. It really reminds me of a lot of 353 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:23,119 Speaker 1: what one is setting to do a set out to 354 00:21:23,119 --> 00:21:25,600 Speaker 1: do with meditation and yoga to to a certain extent, 355 00:21:26,119 --> 00:21:29,320 Speaker 1: except you kind of have a leg up on it 356 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:32,480 Speaker 1: by it being this fun, engaging game as opposed to, uh, 357 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:35,280 Speaker 1: to something that takes a little more deliberate mental or 358 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:40,040 Speaker 1: physical force. Okay, So let's imagine that I am two 359 00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:42,240 Speaker 1: packs a day kind of guy and I'm trying to 360 00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:48,080 Speaker 1: quit smoking. Can Tetris help me? Potentially? Yes, And which 361 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:51,560 Speaker 1: sounds crazy, especially anyone who has firsthand experience with just 362 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:56,600 Speaker 1: how how powerful, uh that addiction can be. But we 363 00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:59,040 Speaker 1: do have some evidence to back it up. This is 364 00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:01,520 Speaker 1: a new study. This came out August two thousand fifteen, 365 00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:04,360 Speaker 1: and it's from a team of psychologists from from Plymouth 366 00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:09,000 Speaker 1: University and Queensland University of Technology in Australia. So this 367 00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:11,760 Speaker 1: is how it how it went down. Uh, they got 368 00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:17,320 Speaker 1: together thirty one participants ages eighteen through twenty seven, and 369 00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:21,560 Speaker 1: they were monitored for levels of craving and also prompted 370 00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:25,600 Speaker 1: seven times a day to report their cravings. Fifteen of 371 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:29,080 Speaker 1: these individuals, so roughly half, were required to play three 372 00:22:29,119 --> 00:22:33,320 Speaker 1: minutes of Tetris before reporting their craving levels. So it's 373 00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:35,520 Speaker 1: kind of like you, you have problems with different cravings 374 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,600 Speaker 1: for different things, and somebody's gonna call you and ask 375 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:40,879 Speaker 1: how you're doing with those cravings. But half of the 376 00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:43,679 Speaker 1: group get to play Tetris first before they're quiz done it. 377 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:47,399 Speaker 1: So cravings were recorded in thirty percent of occasions, most 378 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:51,080 Speaker 1: commonly for food and non alcoholic drinks, which were reported 379 00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:54,159 Speaker 1: on nearly two thirds of those occasions. So of the 380 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:59,439 Speaker 1: cravings were for drug related instances, and these included coffee, 381 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 1: cigarettes when one, and beer and spice. Yeah, and spice 382 00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:08,200 Speaker 1: were for miscellaneous activities such as sleeping, playing video games 383 00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:14,200 Speaker 1: which I found interesting, socializing with friends, and sexual intercourse. 384 00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:17,359 Speaker 1: Food cravings tended to be slightly weaker than those and 385 00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:21,119 Speaker 1: other categories. But they claimed this is the first demonstration 386 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,840 Speaker 1: that cognitive interference. Again, that's Tetris coming into your life, 387 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:29,640 Speaker 1: captivating your brain, shutting out everything else. Cognitive interference can 388 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:33,480 Speaker 1: be used outside the lab to reduce cravings for substances 389 00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:37,320 Speaker 1: and activities other than eating. So in this we could 390 00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:41,359 Speaker 1: see how Tetris or some variation of Tetris, some variation 391 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:45,000 Speaker 1: of a you know of a puzzle solving game, could 392 00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:48,120 Speaker 1: be used as a support tool for curbing addictions. Not 393 00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:52,200 Speaker 1: not again, not the primary tool, but but an additional tool. 394 00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:55,159 Speaker 1: So I'm sure that they didn't find that that it 395 00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:58,560 Speaker 1: would completely eliminate cravings. But but did they have an 396 00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:03,480 Speaker 1: estimate for by how much the cravings were reduced? Yeah, 397 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:08,960 Speaker 1: by approximately one Okay, So I mean that that's you 398 00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:10,840 Speaker 1: could look at that as small, or you could look 399 00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:12,320 Speaker 1: at that as big. I mean if if all it 400 00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:15,719 Speaker 1: takes is Tetris and you don't have to you know, uh, 401 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:19,120 Speaker 1: this is without some other kind of like drug interference 402 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:22,239 Speaker 1: or major behavioral therapy or anything. Yeah. I mean, you're 403 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:24,679 Speaker 1: trying to curb this addiction. So any tool at your 404 00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:28,320 Speaker 1: disposal that that put gives you an advantage is certainly 405 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:31,000 Speaker 1: worth taking up. So yeah, I could see this being again, 406 00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:34,440 Speaker 1: a part of one's treatment. Certainly not the only part 407 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:37,160 Speaker 1: of one's treatment, but it could help. It could certainly help. Yeah. 408 00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:39,760 Speaker 1: I wonder the extent to which Tetris is special here, 409 00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:44,720 Speaker 1: Like how would this compare to other video games? I 410 00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:48,640 Speaker 1: feel like Tetris is kind of special because we haven't 411 00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:51,320 Speaker 1: feel the same way, rather because we haven't really touched 412 00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:52,960 Speaker 1: on this as much. This is something I find in 413 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,920 Speaker 1: gaming in general these days, especially um with a three 414 00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:58,600 Speaker 1: and a half year old running around in my life, 415 00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:02,840 Speaker 1: is that blessed is the game that can be enjoyed 416 00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:08,359 Speaker 1: in very small allotments of time. Yes, true, Tetrisses is 417 00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:11,040 Speaker 1: perfect for that. It is one of them. I just 418 00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:13,560 Speaker 1: the other day When we were preparing for this episode, 419 00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:15,359 Speaker 1: I was doing some research. I decided to play a 420 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,800 Speaker 1: little bit of Tetris, and I several different times I 421 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:21,200 Speaker 1: played for maybe three to five minutes, and oh man, 422 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,119 Speaker 1: that was a session. You can't have a three to 423 00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:27,480 Speaker 1: five minute session of I don't know what do people 424 00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:32,040 Speaker 1: play these days of Fallout four? Yeah, these are games 425 00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:35,439 Speaker 1: that require vast periods of time, vast immersive periods of 426 00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:38,720 Speaker 1: time where there's always time for Tetris, and and it's 427 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,199 Speaker 1: never a situation where I can't play Tetris now this 428 00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:44,320 Speaker 1: environment is too distracting. No, you can play Tetris in 429 00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:48,560 Speaker 1: a war zone, which is kind of insightful given the 430 00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:51,000 Speaker 1: next thing we're going to discuss. Yeah, because I think 431 00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:54,800 Speaker 1: it is time to talk about Tetris and traumatic memory formation. 432 00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:58,400 Speaker 1: So a lot of people probably know this, but it's 433 00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:01,399 Speaker 1: worth explaining a little bit. Sometimes when people have a 434 00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:06,520 Speaker 1: traumatic experience, they can form a kind of recurrent toxic 435 00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:10,760 Speaker 1: memory pattern that can cause serious trouble for them after 436 00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:15,119 Speaker 1: the traumatic incident is over and done with. So you 437 00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:18,960 Speaker 1: mentioned a combat zone. Yeah, imagine you're in a combat zone, 438 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:22,119 Speaker 1: whether you are a soldier or just a bystand or whatever. 439 00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:24,360 Speaker 1: You're at a place where people are fighting and there's 440 00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:28,040 Speaker 1: a sudden eruption of gunfire, and that leads to intense 441 00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:31,639 Speaker 1: fear maybe maybe two personal injury, to the threat on 442 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:36,119 Speaker 1: your life, to witnessing the death or injury of others, 443 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:39,439 Speaker 1: and this can lead to post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. 444 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:44,000 Speaker 1: One of the main symptoms of PTSD is the presence 445 00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:48,119 Speaker 1: of what are known as flashbacks, or these distressing, intrusive 446 00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:51,960 Speaker 1: memories of the traumatic experience that come rushing into your 447 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,040 Speaker 1: mind like an irresistible torrent and can have debilitating effects. 448 00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:58,679 Speaker 1: I mean, obviously you don't want to be you know, 449 00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:03,320 Speaker 1: driving the kids, discore will and suddenly just utterly possessed 450 00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:06,000 Speaker 1: by memories of the time when somebody shot you in 451 00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,399 Speaker 1: the shoulder. Yeah, I mean, it's the one of the 452 00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:11,680 Speaker 1: worst moments of your life is suddenly just popping up 453 00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:13,720 Speaker 1: in your day and in in the course of your daily 454 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:16,919 Speaker 1: life during what should be the best moments of your 455 00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:19,440 Speaker 1: life at times. Right, So, there has been a lot 456 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:22,160 Speaker 1: of research into ways of treating PTSD and people who 457 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:26,800 Speaker 1: already have it. So some treatment courses involve cognitive therapy. 458 00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:29,960 Speaker 1: You know, that's gonna be talk therapy or exposure therapy 459 00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:34,080 Speaker 1: exposing yourself to the problem. Some include drugs like anti 460 00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:37,600 Speaker 1: anxiety medications or antidepressants, and there are even some kind 461 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,679 Speaker 1: of weird and controversial therapies that have been suggested, like 462 00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:44,480 Speaker 1: have you ever read anything about eye A movement, desensitization 463 00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:47,520 Speaker 1: and reprocessing or e M d R. No. I don't 464 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:49,760 Speaker 1: think I've run across this, yew. This is where you 465 00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:53,960 Speaker 1: expose yourself to the traumatic memory, and while you're doing that, 466 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:58,639 Speaker 1: you practice specific patterns of eye A movement in conjunction 467 00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,760 Speaker 1: with the anxiety inducing thoughts. This is a side note. 468 00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,359 Speaker 1: I find this less one really fascinating, and I would 469 00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,919 Speaker 1: love to hear from listeners who are psychiatrists or or 470 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,280 Speaker 1: from people who have practiced this method personally. I don't know. 471 00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:13,640 Speaker 1: Do you all think there's validity to it. I've read 472 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:16,560 Speaker 1: what seemed to be credible scientists saying that there is 473 00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:20,080 Speaker 1: empirical research to show that this works, but I've also 474 00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:22,560 Speaker 1: read that it's controversial. It sounds like one of those 475 00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:25,240 Speaker 1: weird scientific discoveries that might be too good to be true, 476 00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:27,960 Speaker 1: like you can really have an effect just by moving 477 00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:32,760 Speaker 1: your eyeballs around. Remind there are some yogic meditation techniques 478 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:37,399 Speaker 1: that involved the movement of your eyes, and uh, I 479 00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:39,520 Speaker 1: haven't played around with them a lot, but it's it's 480 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:42,720 Speaker 1: certainly present there. So I wonder if there's some connective 481 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:46,200 Speaker 1: tissue between the two. Yeah. Well, anyway, that's interesting by itself, 482 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:48,200 Speaker 1: and I'd love to hear from listeners about it. But anyway, 483 00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:51,960 Speaker 1: back to the to the tetris um, what if there 484 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:54,040 Speaker 1: were a way to all of those things I mentioned 485 00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:57,960 Speaker 1: before were if you already have PTSD, you've already got 486 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:00,760 Speaker 1: this traumatic flashback problem. But what if there were a 487 00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:06,040 Speaker 1: way to inoculate yourself against PTSD before the symptoms begin 488 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:08,440 Speaker 1: to take hold. Okay, so this is the idea here, 489 00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:11,640 Speaker 1: is that something traumatic has occurred. What can I do 490 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:15,000 Speaker 1: to keep from the to keep that trauma from taking 491 00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:16,880 Speaker 1: root in my brain? Yeah, I'd be like if you 492 00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:19,360 Speaker 1: get bit by a dog with rabies and you immediately 493 00:29:19,360 --> 00:29:21,880 Speaker 1: go to the hospital for rabies vaccine, you get bit 494 00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:23,880 Speaker 1: by a zombie and you get to to cut your 495 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:28,200 Speaker 1: arm off. Yeah, so this would be a cognitive vaccine 496 00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:33,360 Speaker 1: against traumatic memories. So in January two thou nine researchers 497 00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:37,160 Speaker 1: led by Dr Emily A. Holmes of Oxford University. They 498 00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:40,200 Speaker 1: published a study on the effects of Tetris on the 499 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:44,360 Speaker 1: formation of traumatic or intrusive memories and it's called Ken. 500 00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:47,520 Speaker 1: Playing the computer game Tetris reduced the build up of 501 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:52,160 Speaker 1: flashbacks for trauma, a proposal from cognitive science. So they 502 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:54,240 Speaker 1: had two pieces of knowledge that they were starting with. 503 00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:58,200 Speaker 1: One of them was cognitive science suggests that the brain 504 00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:02,280 Speaker 1: has selective resources, is with limited capacity, so your brain 505 00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:05,280 Speaker 1: can't do everything. You can only devote so much energy 506 00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:09,440 Speaker 1: resource to a limited number of things at a time. 507 00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:13,320 Speaker 1: And the second fact is the neurobiology of memory suggests 508 00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:18,160 Speaker 1: a six hour window to disrupt memory consolidation. So that 509 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:21,360 Speaker 1: you know that there's this idea that about six hours 510 00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:25,600 Speaker 1: after a memory takes places, when the window for consolidating 511 00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:28,120 Speaker 1: that memory in the brain is, you know, forming that 512 00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:32,880 Speaker 1: strong recurrent pattern memory. So if you deny the brain 513 00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:37,080 Speaker 1: the resources it needs to form visuospatial memories during that 514 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:41,320 Speaker 1: crucial few hours after the event takes place, could you 515 00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:45,360 Speaker 1: stop bad memories from consolidating with such great emphasis in 516 00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:49,160 Speaker 1: the mind. And they tested it. They tested it out 517 00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:57,040 Speaker 1: by getting forty volunteers and making them watch faces of death. Well, 518 00:30:57,120 --> 00:30:59,200 Speaker 1: I don't know Actually they didn't say the name of 519 00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:05,080 Speaker 1: the tape because I remember covering this study like way 520 00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:07,480 Speaker 1: back in the early like the initial version of this 521 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:11,400 Speaker 1: podcast episode with Alson Loudermilk, and I don't remember Faces 522 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:13,560 Speaker 1: of Death, but then maybe I overlooked it. No, no, no, 523 00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:16,080 Speaker 1: it was it was something like that. They were they 524 00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:19,400 Speaker 1: were showed a film. Uh, shown a film full of 525 00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:24,520 Speaker 1: horrible images designed to simulate a traumatic experience. Quote. All 526 00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:27,600 Speaker 1: participants viewed a traumatic film consisting of scenes of real 527 00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:30,280 Speaker 1: injury and death, followed by a thirty minute structured break. 528 00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:35,280 Speaker 1: They described the film as a twelve minute film that 529 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:39,600 Speaker 1: contained eleven clips of traumatic content, including graphic real scenes 530 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:44,360 Speaker 1: of human surgery, fatal road traffic accidents, and drowning. So 531 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:48,400 Speaker 1: that was pretty had disturbing student film, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, 532 00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:50,440 Speaker 1: they were all made to watch that tape from the ring. 533 00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:54,680 Speaker 1: So after viewing the film and taking a real nice 534 00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:57,560 Speaker 1: thirty minute break, half of the participants, half of these 535 00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:00,600 Speaker 1: forty people were given nothing to do except sit quietly 536 00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:03,320 Speaker 1: for ten minutes. This was a control group, and the 537 00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:07,760 Speaker 1: other half played Tetris for ten minutes. Pretty simple experiment. Um. 538 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:10,840 Speaker 1: Then they checked to see how often members of each 539 00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:14,720 Speaker 1: group experience flashbacks during the ten minutes. No surprise that 540 00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:17,920 Speaker 1: people playing Tetris experience fewer flashbacks, but that's not really 541 00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:22,520 Speaker 1: surprising they were playing Tetris. Then, here's where it gets interesting. 542 00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:27,400 Speaker 1: The researchers sent the volunteers away with instructions to keep 543 00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:30,600 Speaker 1: a diary on how many times they had flashbacks to 544 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:33,920 Speaker 1: to to the Faces of Death basically over the next week, 545 00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:38,880 Speaker 1: and the different groups had different rates. They found that 546 00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:41,960 Speaker 1: the people who played Tetris for ten minutes after watching 547 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:46,880 Speaker 1: the film had significantly fewer flashbacks to the Faces of 548 00:32:46,920 --> 00:32:51,800 Speaker 1: Death type video and less symptomology consistent with PTSD when 549 00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:57,200 Speaker 1: they checked back seven days later. Crucially, both groups had 550 00:32:57,240 --> 00:33:01,640 Speaker 1: equivalently strong voluntary recall of the film. And this is 551 00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:04,320 Speaker 1: an interesting aspect too, because they could both remember the 552 00:33:04,320 --> 00:33:07,360 Speaker 1: film fine. They could remember what they saw. Uh, it's 553 00:33:07,400 --> 00:33:10,040 Speaker 1: just that the group that played Tetris had less trouble 554 00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:13,920 Speaker 1: with the unbidden recurrence of these memories throughout their day 555 00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:18,959 Speaker 1: to day lives. So so again, it's not it's not 556 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:22,360 Speaker 1: just a matter of hey, Tetris distracted them from initially 557 00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:28,160 Speaker 1: thinking about it, but Tetris interfered with the brains codifying 558 00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:31,320 Speaker 1: of the experience as a traumatic Yeah. And they concluded 559 00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:34,360 Speaker 1: from this that it's not just distraction like you say, 560 00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:38,200 Speaker 1: it's something about the visuospatial nature of tetris. This is 561 00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:41,240 Speaker 1: something that they call out specifically that tetris is of 562 00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:46,400 Speaker 1: visual and spatial or visuospatial task, because verbal and other 563 00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:51,160 Speaker 1: distracting tasks have been demonstrated ineffective before against trauma flashbacks. 564 00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:54,160 Speaker 1: In some cases they even intensify them. So in this 565 00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:56,960 Speaker 1: first study, one of the things they wanted to point 566 00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:59,880 Speaker 1: out that they were not saying, people who already have PTSD, 567 00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:02,920 Speaker 1: you can get better by playing tetris, though they speculate 568 00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:05,560 Speaker 1: this could be a possibility, and this gets revisited in 569 00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:08,400 Speaker 1: a later study. And they were also not suggesting that 570 00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:11,600 Speaker 1: playing any video game would have the same effect, and 571 00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:14,200 Speaker 1: they get into that in another experiment and a bit, 572 00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:17,319 Speaker 1: but just a couple of comments. One of the things 573 00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:20,359 Speaker 1: is it's hard to test something like the formation of 574 00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:25,200 Speaker 1: traumatic memories leading to PTSD because for obvious ethical reasons, 575 00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:28,680 Speaker 1: you can't expose somebody to life shattering trauma for the 576 00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:31,440 Speaker 1: sake of the experiment. So the best they could do 577 00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:34,839 Speaker 1: is show somebody a really disturbing movie. And even that 578 00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:37,319 Speaker 1: seems kind of weird. I mean when you read like, yes, 579 00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:39,759 Speaker 1: they were showed the graphic images of death, and then 580 00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:42,160 Speaker 1: we asked them how troubled they were. Now, you could 581 00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:45,240 Speaker 1: imagine a scenario where they are trauma metic rushes out, 582 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,840 Speaker 1: begins treating the individual who is is down on the 583 00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:52,319 Speaker 1: ground with that and is wounded, and then passing out 584 00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:56,279 Speaker 1: game boys exactly to those soldiers in their nets. Yeah, 585 00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:58,839 Speaker 1: that's the other half. It seems impractical to seek out 586 00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,360 Speaker 1: people who have just been shot or hit by a 587 00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:07,480 Speaker 1: car or something and then give them Tetris. But these 588 00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:10,799 Speaker 1: findings have been followed up on in subsequent studies. So 589 00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:13,640 Speaker 1: the same group did another study in two thousand and 590 00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:18,800 Speaker 1: ten where they they attempted to answer the questions would 591 00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:22,400 Speaker 1: all games have this effect via distraction or enjoyment or 592 00:35:22,480 --> 00:35:25,959 Speaker 1: might some games even be harmful? And then second, would 593 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,280 Speaker 1: the effects be found if administered several hours post trauma. 594 00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:32,080 Speaker 1: Because this first one it was just Tetris and they 595 00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:34,279 Speaker 1: played thirty minutes after they saw the movie, So they 596 00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:39,360 Speaker 1: essentially repeated the experiment, but instead of just Tetris, they 597 00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:42,480 Speaker 1: tried Tetris and then this game called pub Quiz Machine 598 00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:47,880 Speaker 1: two thousand eight. Um, and yeah, I looked up a 599 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:51,439 Speaker 1: video of somebody merely playing public Quiz two thousand eight 600 00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,120 Speaker 1: pub Quiz Machine two thousand eight on YouTube, and I 601 00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:58,280 Speaker 1: think that alone could cause traumatic memories. But but anyway, 602 00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:02,640 Speaker 1: they had those two and they concluded that no, the 603 00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:06,360 Speaker 1: pub Quiz did not do as well as Tetris. In fact, 604 00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:09,319 Speaker 1: they found that the pub Quiz made the traumatic experience 605 00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:13,160 Speaker 1: flashbacks more intense. So if you if you have a 606 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:16,080 Speaker 1: traumatic experience and then play pub Quiz, it's going to 607 00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:19,160 Speaker 1: be even worse for you. Don't do that. But Tetris 608 00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:22,280 Speaker 1: still performed better. And they also found that even four 609 00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:25,960 Speaker 1: hours after watching the film, Tetris had significant reduction in 610 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:30,240 Speaker 1: flashback because window. Yeah, so you can wait four hours 611 00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:35,600 Speaker 1: after the event play some Tetris and supposedly this discourages flashbacks. 612 00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:38,239 Speaker 1: Just another reason to make sure Tetris is on your 613 00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:41,800 Speaker 1: phone just in case. Now, again, I wonder about Tetris 614 00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:45,600 Speaker 1: versus non verbal visual games. So if you're playing Metroid 615 00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:48,840 Speaker 1: or Shack Fou or something like it, does does the 616 00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:51,279 Speaker 1: game have to provide a certain level of challenge? Is 617 00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:54,360 Speaker 1: there a difference between the effects on experience tetris players 618 00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:56,720 Speaker 1: and on novices. So there are a lot of questions 619 00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:59,600 Speaker 1: that haven't been answered yet. Um. But then there was 620 00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:01,800 Speaker 1: another study from this year and this is the last 621 00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:06,120 Speaker 1: one in psychological science, in a group of researchers, again 622 00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:09,720 Speaker 1: including Dr Emily A. Holmes, who was on the other studies, 623 00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:14,880 Speaker 1: published findings that visual spatial game tasks can block traumatic 624 00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:18,080 Speaker 1: memories even after the memories are already formed. So remember 625 00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:21,160 Speaker 1: earlier I was like, well, they weren't saying that you 626 00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:24,759 Speaker 1: can cure PTSD or not cure, but but help or 627 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:28,520 Speaker 1: alleviate some aspects of PTSD just by playing tetris after 628 00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:31,879 Speaker 1: it's already formed. Here they found maybe you can do that. 629 00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:37,080 Speaker 1: And because what they did is they had people after 630 00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:41,480 Speaker 1: the memory formation had already taken place, recall the memories, 631 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:44,960 Speaker 1: so bring up voluntarily in the mind the traumatic memories 632 00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:48,720 Speaker 1: and then play tetris, and they found that this also 633 00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:52,840 Speaker 1: reduced flashbacks. Well that that makes sense given the nature 634 00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:56,840 Speaker 1: of memories. The example I always bring up when we 635 00:37:56,920 --> 00:37:59,680 Speaker 1: discussed this is that that every memory in your head 636 00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:02,799 Speaker 1: is not a little stone statue of the event, but 637 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:06,120 Speaker 1: a clay statue of the event, and it's it's it's 638 00:38:06,160 --> 00:38:08,480 Speaker 1: something that it can be, it's valuable, it can be changed, 639 00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:11,200 Speaker 1: it can be altered every time you draw it out there. 640 00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:13,840 Speaker 1: And also when you draw it out it is susceptible, 641 00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:18,920 Speaker 1: uh to positive change if it's traumatic. Um, so that 642 00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:21,880 Speaker 1: would make sense. Yeah, So in all of these studies, 643 00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:24,920 Speaker 1: they chalk this up to competition for resources in in 644 00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:31,120 Speaker 1: visual visuospatial conception in the brain. Essentially that they're saying 645 00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:34,279 Speaker 1: that the disturbing images that come in your flashbacks when 646 00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:36,480 Speaker 1: you're you know, remembering that you got shot or hit 647 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:38,640 Speaker 1: by a car, you know, threatened by a guy with 648 00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:42,279 Speaker 1: a chainsaw or something whatever that is, that's terrifying you. 649 00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:47,399 Speaker 1: It's essentially a visual spatial problem in your brain. And 650 00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:50,080 Speaker 1: if you can if you can dampen that, if you 651 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:55,160 Speaker 1: can just kind of uh smudge that memory with competition 652 00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:56,920 Speaker 1: by the part of your brain that you used to 653 00:38:56,960 --> 00:39:00,759 Speaker 1: solve tetris puzzles, you significantly we in the hold it 654 00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:05,080 Speaker 1: has over you. So anyway, I would love to see 655 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:08,520 Speaker 1: more research in that area, and it seems very interesting 656 00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:12,080 Speaker 1: and hopefully promising. I mean, if people can get relief 657 00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:15,000 Speaker 1: from this, I I think that's a wonderful thing. Yeah, totally. 658 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:20,200 Speaker 1: So we have one more area of potential tetris treatment 659 00:39:20,239 --> 00:39:23,680 Speaker 1: to discuss here, and it concerns UH, something that's commonly 660 00:39:23,719 --> 00:39:27,359 Speaker 1: referred to as lazy I. We're talking about amblyopia here. 661 00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:30,880 Speaker 1: It's a disorder of sight and it results in decreased 662 00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:34,719 Speaker 1: vision in an eye that otherwise appears normal or out 663 00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:38,680 Speaker 1: of proportion to associated structural problems of the eye. So 664 00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:42,200 Speaker 1: up to three percent of the population suffers from amblyopia. 665 00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:46,640 Speaker 1: And it's it's ultimately caused by poor processing in the brain, 666 00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:50,560 Speaker 1: which results in the suppression of the weaker eye by 667 00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:54,600 Speaker 1: the stronger eye. Huh. Now that the common method of 668 00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:58,040 Speaker 1: treating this has always been patching, So you wear an 669 00:39:58,040 --> 00:40:01,600 Speaker 1: eye patch over the good eye. Um and uh and 670 00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:07,600 Speaker 1: and eventually brings things back back to order. But UM, 671 00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:09,960 Speaker 1: this is this is generally more helpful with the younger 672 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:12,960 Speaker 1: cases and not with older individuals who are suffering from 673 00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:17,839 Speaker 1: lazy eye. So two thousand thirteen, a research team led 674 00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:21,000 Speaker 1: by Dr Robert Hess from mcgel University and the Research 675 00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:25,160 Speaker 1: Institute of the mcgel University Health Center looked in to 676 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:30,279 Speaker 1: to possible use of tetris as a means of treating UH. 677 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:35,480 Speaker 1: Individuals are suffering from again yeah, once more. So they 678 00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:39,600 Speaker 1: they found that by distributing information between the two eyes 679 00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:44,160 Speaker 1: in a complimentary fashion, Tetris trains both eyes to work together, 680 00:40:44,760 --> 00:40:48,000 Speaker 1: which is which again is countered to previous treatments such 681 00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:52,359 Speaker 1: as patching. So you're forcing both eyes to cooperate, which 682 00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:55,480 Speaker 1: increases the level of plasticity in the brain and allows 683 00:40:56,000 --> 00:41:00,800 Speaker 1: UH the the the individual's brain to real or essentially 684 00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:04,280 Speaker 1: relearn how to look at something and take individual data. 685 00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:07,960 Speaker 1: So they did this by using a head mounted video goggles. 686 00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:11,160 Speaker 1: They displayed the game dicoptically, so one I was allowed 687 00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:13,239 Speaker 1: to see only the following objects and the other eye 688 00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:17,319 Speaker 1: was allowed to see only ground plane objects. So this 689 00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:20,120 Speaker 1: forced the two eyes to work together. So you have 690 00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:22,200 Speaker 1: to be they have to die, have to be working 691 00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:24,480 Speaker 1: together to get the full image. Wait, which I could 692 00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:27,160 Speaker 1: see the preview box or where they're playing without the 693 00:41:27,160 --> 00:41:29,520 Speaker 1: preview box. Maybe they were playing without the preview box. 694 00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:33,960 Speaker 1: See this is this is really crazy because in that 695 00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:37,600 Speaker 1: documentary about Tetris I mentioned in the UH in the 696 00:41:37,640 --> 00:41:40,319 Speaker 1: other episode, it's called the Ecstasy of Order. Again, I 697 00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:44,360 Speaker 1: really liked it, so I recommended there's a Tetris champion 698 00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,000 Speaker 1: in their name Jonas Newbauer, and at one point he 699 00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:51,640 Speaker 1: jokes around by demonstrating his secret weapon, and it's pointing 700 00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:55,799 Speaker 1: his eyeballs separately in different directions, presumably. I think the 701 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:58,440 Speaker 1: joke is so that one can watch the falling block 702 00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:01,359 Speaker 1: while the other watches the preview box to tell you 703 00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:05,000 Speaker 1: which block is coming next. I think he's joking, but 704 00:42:05,160 --> 00:42:09,160 Speaker 1: I'm not positive whether he's he actually uses this while 705 00:42:09,200 --> 00:42:11,239 Speaker 1: playing or not. Huh, yeah, because he would be he 706 00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:14,520 Speaker 1: would be doing the direct opposite of of the very 707 00:42:14,560 --> 00:42:17,880 Speaker 1: thing about the tatris experience that is being uh utilized 708 00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:21,960 Speaker 1: potentially treat lazy in this case. Yeah so uh as 709 00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:24,799 Speaker 1: as far as this particular research goes, clinical trials worse 710 00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:30,160 Speaker 1: at least initially scheduled, and the company Ambliotech purchased the 711 00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:33,320 Speaker 1: research findings and licensed it to to you Be Soft 712 00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:37,440 Speaker 1: for the creation of lazy eye treatment games, specific like 713 00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:41,719 Speaker 1: therapy games. Yeah so, Ambliotech is currently seeking permission from 714 00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:45,840 Speaker 1: the U S. Food and Drug Administration to market the therapy, 715 00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:48,920 Speaker 1: such as their game dig Rush, which is is not 716 00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:52,960 Speaker 1: tetris um and it looks, uh, it looks like it's 717 00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:55,600 Speaker 1: basically like a little Digger character that's moving around on 718 00:42:55,719 --> 00:42:59,200 Speaker 1: a If it ain't Tetris, I don't care. It's certainly 719 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:03,359 Speaker 1: US abstract. Yeah, but the thing is that it utilizes 720 00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:06,400 Speaker 1: a tablet and three D glasses, so you get that 721 00:43:06,960 --> 00:43:09,680 Speaker 1: red and blue, you know, disconnect and you have to 722 00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:12,160 Speaker 1: use both eyes and concert to see the full picture. 723 00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:16,520 Speaker 1: Um So anyway, they're they're seeking FDA approval for this 724 00:43:17,080 --> 00:43:19,719 Speaker 1: according to the most recent report. It was the March 725 00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:23,120 Speaker 1: BBC report. And if you want to learn more about 726 00:43:23,160 --> 00:43:25,560 Speaker 1: that company and see some screenshots from their game, you 727 00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:28,719 Speaker 1: can find them at www dot ambliothech dot com. That's 728 00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:32,320 Speaker 1: a m B L y O t e c H. 729 00:43:32,640 --> 00:43:35,680 Speaker 1: You know, Tetris has been such an interesting subject to 730 00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:40,040 Speaker 1: do on this show because I I still have the 731 00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:43,200 Speaker 1: intuition I had at the very beginning. I still feel 732 00:43:43,239 --> 00:43:47,200 Speaker 1: like there's an ancient secret inside Tetris, or maybe Tetris 733 00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:50,440 Speaker 1: is the ancient secret, And after doing all this research, 734 00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:53,880 Speaker 1: I don't feel any closer to articulating what that that 735 00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:57,040 Speaker 1: ancient mystery or that secret is. What's because the Holy 736 00:43:57,160 --> 00:44:02,800 Speaker 1: Tetromino stands outside of our human world, and in playing Tetris, 737 00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:06,920 Speaker 1: were able to dip into the deep currents of energy 738 00:44:07,040 --> 00:44:10,880 Speaker 1: that underlie our reality. Yeah. Yeah, I'm trying to come 739 00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:14,880 Speaker 1: up with some kind of astronomical metaphor or or the 740 00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:18,959 Speaker 1: stars Tetris blocks, but they're not really unless you start 741 00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:22,280 Speaker 1: thinking about it. Yeah, and then there's no inn thinking 742 00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:27,759 Speaker 1: about it. And wait a second, Yeah they are, yeah, 743 00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:32,280 Speaker 1: they are. You ever notice how the Maria on the moon, 744 00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:38,319 Speaker 1: the lunar oceans, that it's all Tetris blocks. Yeah, yeah, 745 00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:40,560 Speaker 1: I'll buy into it. It sounds good to me. It's 746 00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:43,399 Speaker 1: the big storm on Jupiter. Yeah, just another Tetris block. 747 00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:47,000 Speaker 1: That's what two by two I think. Ultimately it is 748 00:44:47,040 --> 00:44:51,160 Speaker 1: a very fast, swirling Z shaped blocks. So it's it's 749 00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:53,960 Speaker 1: a storm because it's the troubling Z shaped block. Those 750 00:44:53,960 --> 00:44:59,080 Speaker 1: blocks are the devil. All right, Well, we know that 751 00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:01,759 Speaker 1: this is a topic that it resonates with a lot 752 00:45:01,840 --> 00:45:04,640 Speaker 1: of people out there because tetris is just something that's 753 00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:07,799 Speaker 1: unavoidable in our culture. At this point, everybody's seen it 754 00:45:07,880 --> 00:45:10,480 Speaker 1: or played it. You have varying levels of experience with it, 755 00:45:10,520 --> 00:45:12,880 Speaker 1: but chances are you had at least a little bit 756 00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:15,600 Speaker 1: of time that you're addicted to it. Yeah. So if 757 00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:18,880 Speaker 1: you know the ancient secret of Tetris and you understand 758 00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:21,960 Speaker 1: why it is the strongest potion in the in the 759 00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:26,799 Speaker 1: Digital Sorcerer's potion bag. You should let us know. That's right. 760 00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:28,319 Speaker 1: You can find is that the Stuff to Blow your 761 00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:31,040 Speaker 1: Mind dot com. That is our mothership. That's we'll find 762 00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:34,520 Speaker 1: all the podcast episodes. You'll find, videos, will find blog posts. 763 00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:36,480 Speaker 1: You'll find a link out to our social media accounts 764 00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:39,360 Speaker 1: such as Twitter and Facebook. We're blow the mind on 765 00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:41,120 Speaker 1: both of those, and we are stuff to blow your 766 00:45:41,120 --> 00:45:43,239 Speaker 1: mind on Tumbler. And if you want to get to 767 00:45:43,400 --> 00:45:46,360 Speaker 1: us with your personal Tetris stories or any feedback on 768 00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:49,080 Speaker 1: the show, or your thoughts about the cognitive science of 769 00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:51,759 Speaker 1: gaming and Tetris, you can email us and blow the 770 00:45:51,800 --> 00:46:04,360 Speaker 1: mind at how Stuff Works for more on this and 771 00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:22,759 Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Isn't how stuffworks dot com? Fou