Game of Tetris anyone?

Remember Tetris? That highly addictive game that you could quite easily waste away a few hours on without even realising? Well it turns out those so-called 'wasted hours', weren't a waste of time at all.

Research conducted by American scientists have found that playing Tetris can increase a players' grey matter, and improve thinking. The findings were made after experiments with teenage girls who were asked to play Tetris for half an hour a day for three months.

Scans revealed "structural changes" in parts of their brains "associated with movement, critical thinking, reasoning, language and processing," said researchers in a report to be published by the journal BMC Research Notes.

The scientists from the Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, US, also believe that practising the game, which involves juggling falling shapes to form a line on a computer screen, may actually boost "mental efficiency."

Neuropsychologist Dr Rex Jung said: "One of the most surprising findings of brain research in the last five years was that juggling practice increased grey matter in the motor areas of the brain. We did our Tetris study to see if mental practice increased cortical thickness, a sign of more grey matter. If it did, it could be an explanation for why previous studies have shown that mental practice increases brain efficiency."

More grey matter in the brain could mean that certain areas of the brain do not need to work as hard to complete often complex tasks.

Psychologist and co-author Dr Richard Haier added: "We were excited to see cortical thickness differences between the girls that practiced Tetris and those who did not."

This study many have been conducted on teenage girls, but it's a great excuse to get on your computer and play again. I'm relieved to know that all the hours I've spent playing onTetris is not a complete waste of time. And as my peak playing time was as a teenage, I surely must have benefited in some way right?

Tetris was developed by a Russian programmer, Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. Today it still remains one of the world's most popular computer games.

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