While video games are often seen as entertainment, recent research reveals how video games boost mental health and cognition, supporting emotional well-being and brain function. Games can provide a unique mental workout that activates specific brain networks, creating measurable benefits for managing stress, trauma, and anxiety. By understanding how video games engage key brain systems like the Central Executive Network (CEN) and shift activity away from the Default Mode Network (DMN), we can explore how targeted gameplay may enhance mental well-being.
The information in this blog is partly based on research that used Tetris as a mental health-promoting tool. This blog will provide an overview of some current neuroscientific theories around how playing video games may influence brain networks and offers practical strategies for incorporating video game-based interventions to improve focus, reduce rumination, and promote mental resilience.
The Triple Network Model: How Our Brain Balances Thought and Action
The triple network model in neuroscience describes how three brain networks interact to regulate attention, cognition, and emotional response.
- Default Mode Network (DMN): The DMN is active during rest and self-reflective thought, such as daydreaming, recalling memories, and internal planning. (Internally focused attention.) This network can become overly active in conditions like depression and anxiety, where excessive rumination—persistent self-focused, often negative thought patterns—dominates. Deactivating the DMN correlates with a decrease in the symptoms associated with these conditions.
- Central Executive Network (CEN): The CEN is responsible for problem-solving, working memory, and maintaining focus during tasks. When we engage in goal-directed activities, like solving puzzles, the CEN takes charge, enabling us to focus, strategize, and adapt. It is externally focused attention.
- Salience Network (SN): The SN acts as a switchboard, identifying relevant information and helping us shift between the DMN and CEN. It helps us respond appropriately to what’s happening around us—whether that means paying attention to an external task (activating the CEN) or reflecting on an internal thought (activating the DMN).
In individuals with mental health challenges, the balance between these three networks can be disrupted. For example, excessive activity in the DMN can contribute to the negative self-talk and worry seen in anxiety and depression. Engaging the CEN through focused, goal-oriented activities can reduce the DMN activity, helping to create a more balanced mental state. All three of the networks work together to appropriately shift focus. Not only does this help to regulate emotion, it’s also linked to effective learning.
How Tetris Activates the CEN and Modulates Brain Network Activity
Tetris is a game that involves arranging differently shaped blocks in a way that forms complete rows. This seemingly simple task requires spatial reasoning, attention, and quick decision-making—all functions of the CEN. When you play Tetris, you engage in a mental exercise that temporarily suppresses DMN activity. Shifting focus to an external, goal-driven task helps redirect the brain away from internal, ruminative thoughts, potentially providing relief from stress, anxiety, or intrusive memories.
Studies have demonstrated the therapeutic potential of Tetris for mental health:
- Reducing Trauma Symptoms: Researchers have found that playing Tetris shortly after a traumatic experience can interfere with the brain’s process of consolidating disturbing memories. By engaging the CEN, Tetris disrupts the formation of visual flashbacks, reducing the intensity and frequency of trauma-related symptoms.
- Alleviating Anxiety and Depression: For those dealing with anxiety or depression, focusing on an external task that requires rapid decision-making can relieve rumination and reduce negative thought patterns. This shift away from DMN activity to CEN engagement provides a mental “break” from repetitive negative thoughts, creating space for more positive emotions.
In addition to mental health benefits, playing games that activate the CEN, deactivate the DMN, and strengthen the switching mechanism (salient network), may help to reinforce the neural patterns of the CEN (externally-focused attention), thereby improving a person’s efficiency within the CEN, and potentially impacting learning.
Practical Strategies for Using Tetris and Similar Games to Support Mental Health
While Tetris and similar games are not standalone treatments, they can be tools to complement other mental health interventions. Here are some strategies for using Tetris to engage the CEN, shift focus from the DMN, and support mental well-being:
1. Use Tetris to Manage Stress and Anxiety
Engaging in Tetris during moments of heightened anxiety can provide a structured distraction, helping to reduce worry and stress. The focused nature of the game helps to redirect attention away from distressing thoughts, creating a calming mental reset.
Strategy: Try setting aside 10–15 minutes to play Tetris when you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed. Focus fully on the task, allowing the need for quick decision-making to occupy your mind. This brief engagement can provide relief, helping you return to your day with a refreshed perspective.
2. Incorporate Tetris as a Tool for Reducing Intrusive Memories
For individuals experiencing intrusive memories or flashbacks, such as those associated with PTSD, playing Tetris can serve as an early intervention to reduce the likelihood of traumatic memory consolidation. By visualizing and strategizing within the game, the brain shifts from processing traumatic imagery to focusing on immediate, non-threatening tasks.
Strategy: When experiencing a distressing memory or flashback, try to play Tetris or a similar puzzle game that captures your full attention. Studies suggest that this immediate redirection of mental focus may reduce the vividness and emotional impact of the memory, making it easier to manage in the long run.
3. Use Tetris to Enhance Focus and Cognitive Flexibility
Beyond managing negative symptoms, Tetris might help improve cognitive abilities like focus, spatial awareness, and problem-solving by promoting neural efficiency within the CEN. This may be be a tool to help build mental resilience and adaptability.
Strategy: Incorporate Tetris into your routine as a “mental workout” to activate your Central Executive Network.
4. Leverage Video Games for “Flow State” Experiences
“Flow” is a mental state of complete absorption in a task, where you’re fully focused and losing track of time. Games can provide an opportunity for flow, as they balance challenge and engagement. Achieving flow is associated with reduced anxiety and enhanced creativity.
Strategy: To achieve a flow state, try playing a video game at a level of difficulty that feels slightly challenging but manageable. Allow yourself to become fully absorbed in the game without distractions, experiencing the benefits of sustained, uninterrupted focus.
Balancing Video Game-Based Interventions with Other Therapeutic Approaches
While video games like Tetris can be beneficial, it’s essential to use them as part of a balanced approach to mental health. For some, video games alone may not provide sufficient relief, and integrating additional therapeutic methods may be more effective. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness practices, or exposure therapy can complement video game interventions, creating a comprehensive mental health support system.
As we explore new approaches to mental health and cognitive function, video games present unique, accessible ways to engage brain networks and shift attention from internal, to external thought patterns. By activating the CEN and reducing DMN activity, these games may allow us to experience moments of distraction from unhelpful internal self-focus and rumination, mental clarity, and cognitive engagement.
Whether you’re looking to manage stress, reduce intrusive memories, or simply activate and reinforce CEN function, there is emerging evidence that playing video games is an engaging, scientifically-backed option to support mental well-being. If you’re looking for more personalized strategies or support, our team at Renew Neurotherapy is here to help. Our team will work with you to customize your therapeutic process to your unique needs. Reach out to us today to learn more!