Tetris May Prevent PTSD

Researchers from the University of Oxford have found a way to help prevent bad memories from getting laid down in the brain, and causing problems like post traumatic stress disorder.

Dr Emily Holmes of Oxford University’s Institute of Psychiatry states that there is a six hour window after a traumatic event, during which time the events are laid down as firm, fixed memories in our brain. In extreme situations, these memories can haunt an individual causing a condition called post-traumatic stress disorder, where the memories can become intrusive and play back in the mind involuntarily.

The researchers were examining this immediate window of opportunity for preventing these memories forming. They had a whole bunch of people watch videos of very traumatic events – like a child drowning, and bad car accidents. Then half the group sat quietly in a room. The other half played the computer game Tetris. The sitting quietly group then had far more intrusive memories of the videos than the Tetris group.

It has been suggested that the computer game Tetris uses many of the brain areas involved in laying down such memories. Therefore, if the brain is busy, the memories are not laid down as clearly or effectively.

While this has clear potential for helping victims in the aftermath of disasters, many feel that interventions of this kind are an assault on personality and individuality, arguing that we are the sum of our experiences, and preventing us from remembering some experiences may prevent us being fully ourselves. However, sufferers of PTSD feel that the intrusive memories and flashbacks are in themselves an attack on the individual and prevent them from moving forward and incorporating the traumatic event in their personal history rather than present.

Lab-Rat Students To Test Mephedrone

'New' drug mephedrone has been hitting the headlines recently, following the deaths of several young people around the country who had apparently been using the drug. But what is mephedrone?

It is a legal substance in the UK, and is sold as a plant fertiliser – clearly marked ‘not for human consumption’. But it clearly is being consumed by humans, so what does it do?

Mephedrone has a stimulant effect, a bit like an amphetamine. It is a synthetic substance that is quite similar to the East African plant Khat that is often used there for recreational purposes. It is a white crystal or powder that take be snorted, rubbed on the tongue or swallowed in a pill. So how dangerous is it?

Well this is what the scientists are hoping to discover by monitoring the effects of mephedrone in students who are taking the drug. The students involved are 'mephedrone users' – and so with or without the observing scientists, they would be exposing themselves to the same risks. Scientists are going to monitor the students throughout the night, assessing their consciousness and alertness, mood and the come-down effects of the drug.

So it remains legal in the UK, but what is the status in other countries? Well many other countries have strong restrictions on mephedrone or have made it illegal, including: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Israel, Jersey, Holland, New Zealand, Romania and Sweden.