What does Tetris do to your brain?

[Arkhangelsk]

I've read some stuff about the great time-killing Tetris, and as I already knew, the game trains your brain, but I don't get what it does. I'm not a neurologist, or any kind of professional at all for that matter, but I wonder, does Tetris do anything to your brain that can benefit in other ways than killing time? I read that it improves "cerebral energy consumption" but that's a sentence I don't understand.

 

[About To Crash]

As the game speeds up, to succeed you have to constantly pay attention to what blocks are coming next, the one that's falling, and any plan you may have in action. You must have sound hand-eye co-ordination, and impressive reflexes. The more you play, the more these abilities will develop.

 

[azadiscool]

I think Tetris actually is detrimental, seeing as I play it constantly during study hall.

I never notice any strain or anything, so if I am training my brain somehow, then it is definitely subconsciously.

 

[GodsOneMistake]

IT teaches you to procrastinate

 

[Kirra]

Tetris quiets the voices that tell me to torture and murder so i guess it's quite beneficent.

 

[Major_Sam]

It's good for taking your mind of the worries in your mind and to kill time. But if I play it too much, I start to play it in my sleep.

 

[Spacelord]

It's good for taking your mind of the worries in your mind and to kill time. But if I play it too much, I start to play it in my sleep.

Hey, better Tetris than Manhunt.

Cerebral energy consumption means just that: your brain, which is an organ, consumes more nutrients than it would while picking your nose. This is also why you get hungry after studying for extended periods of time. Same as running: you burn more, you get hungry faster. You study/puzzle/Tetris longer, you get hungry faster too. Everything that's being used more intensively than normal is gonna need more energy.

Regardless, I'm inclined to say that Tetris trains your brain like booze trains your liver.

 

[JediMB]

Not sure if it can really count as training, but it does stimulate your brain through its basic geometrics.

 

[postzit]

i used to play tetris so much that in world of warcraft long flights i used to play it in my head