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“We did our Tetris study to see if mental practice increased cortical thickness, a sign of more gray matter. Rex Jung, a co-investigator on the Tetris study and a clinical neuropsychologist. “One of the most surprising findings of brain research in the last five years was that juggling practice increased gray matter in the motor areas of the brain,” said Dr. These areas are associated with critical thinking, reasoning, and language and processing. Functional MRI (fMRI) showed greater efficiency after practice mostly in the right frontal and parietal lobes including BAs 32, 6, 8, 9, 46 and BA 40. BA 22 and BA 38 are believed to be the part of the brain active in multisensory integration-or our brain’s coordination of visual, tactile, auditory, and internal physiological information. Scientists believe BA 6 plays a role in the planning of complex, coordinated movements.

The areas of the brain that showed relatively thicker cortex were the Brodmann Area (BA) 6 in the left frontal lobe and BA 22 and BA 38 in the left temporal lobe. Compared to controls, the girls that practiced also had a thicker cortex, but not in the same brain areas where efficiency occurred. The girls who practiced showed greater brain efficiency, consistent with earlier studies. A structural MRI was used to assess cortical thickness, and a functional MRI was used to assess efficient activity. The girls completed both structural and functional MRI scans before and after the three-month practice period, as did girls in the control group who did not play Tetris. For 30 minutes a day over a three-month period, 26 adolescent girls played Tetris, a computer game requiring a combination of cognitive skills. Researchers from Mind Research Network in Albuquerque used brain imaging and Tetris to investigate whether practice makes the brain efficient because it increases gray matter.