Or at least the brains of adolescent girls, who were the subject of the study, funded by Tetris marketer Blue Planet Software. Adolescent girls' brains are still developing, as any adolescent boy can tell you, so their brains are more susceptible to the sort of change Haier was looking for, and change he indeed found. The girls were given MRI scans before and after three months of Tetris, and after the testing period it was found that certain areas (in blue above) showed greater efficiency, while others (in red) showed thicker cortexes, indicating more brain matter.

Future benefits of this study, says co-investigator Dr. Richard Haier, might be to "demonstrate that a player of Tetris does see lasting effects that generalize to other activity," showing for example that engaging in activities like playing some games might help fight off the mental decline that occurs with aging.

The full study is being published in Thursday's BMC Research Notes, but we get the general gist. Adolescent girls who play Tetris on a regular basis grow up to be completely awesome.

How Tetris Changes Your Brain [Wired]

In piece written for Edge magazine, Valve's Gabe Newell spoke about how Left 4 Dead's AI Director analyses a player's actions to gauge how well they are faring and adjusts the game to suit. The kind of user input data that can be captured from a mouse or gamepad doesn't give the level of detail that Newell would like to see, though, so Valve are researching ways of using biometrics and even EEG's to examine a gamer's inner state.

"There are new technologies where we can wire players up with EEGs and actually have direct exposure to their physical reactions to the games," writes Newell.

"We can know for sure of something is actually frightening the player - their heart rate is going up, their respiration stats are peaking, appropriate parts of their brains are being activated. Direct measurement of players’ arousal states and responses to the things we’re doing is super exciting. It just will allow us to be much more analytical about the decisions that we’re making and the roller coaster ride we’re trying to create for the player."

What kind of kit this will require you to buy remains a mystery, of course. I can just about stomach having a fake drum kit in my living room - having a brain scanner lurking next to the sofa might be a gadget too far.

Gabe Newell Writes for Edge [Edge]

He started his character with an intelligence of 2 and is chronicling his playthrough on his blog. Funny? A bit. Frustrating? The blogger writes:

This might sound like a downer, but it's a burden to be dumb (Intelligence < 4). It's like being evil; you might get a kick out of the dialogues, but there are much fewer quests and party members available to you. Even Sulik didn't join me! I thought I had read somewhere that the quests in Fallout 2 would play out completely differently for a dumb person, such that he could essentially Gump his way to victory. So far, though, many of the quests aren't playing out at all.

I played Fallout 3 last week in L.A. (in the same room as the legendary, long-lost Crecente). I didn't do very well. Maybe my character's intelligence was set to 2 as well.

Fallout 2 for Dummies: A Post Nukular AAR [Octopus Overlords blog]

The major downfall of our ability to track objects is speed. Because once these dots hit the on-screen speed of 0.15 metres per second, subjects were only able to track one dot at a time. I wish that I could put such a speed into real world context, but if you are interested in experiencing the phenomenon for yourself, hit this link to test yourself. It's...humbling at high speeds.

Brain can juggle eight balls at once [newscientist]

GP: One thing I found especially concerning... was [an e-mail] comment that you only saw the [Indiana University] brain scan pix five minutes before air [of The Morning Show]. That being the case, do you think it appropriate to go on and offer a professional opinion based on the scans to the audience?

Dr. Bartell: That's the way it is with TV — it's just not a black and white thing. I am genuinely sorry that it caused such a sense that I was being so disrespectful [to gamers]. The scans aside I stand by my opinion that violent games should not be played by teens... As to whether I should have responded to the scans — my intent was going on air to discuss whether the church should be holding Halo nights, clearly that was derailed.

GP: In all honesty, I'm having difficulty reconciling "that's the way it is with TV" to responsible professionalism. It smacks of sensationalism. Just being candid here.

Dr. Bartell: I can understand how you feel... there is an element of sensationalism to it I suppose...I couldn't — five minutes before going on air — say, sorry I won't do it, I don't have enough background information about this brain scan! I'm just not that much of a purist...

From the looks of it, not only does Dr. Bartell have a horse in this race, but The Morning Show doesn't seem too keen on video games, either. For a program that oversimplifies major issues into 4-minute coffee talk to an audience that should be, I dunno, working, there must be a more suitable story to run like "drink more water" or "the bad people are coming to knock over children not wearing their bike helmets after raping the tailpipe of your unlocked car and wiping avian influenza on the seats."

How Fox Morning Show Sensationalized the Halo-in-Church Issue [gamepolitics]

Don Simoneau, an occupational therapist at the Glenrose, said he has used the technology on only about five patients in the past two and a half months, but already the 200 hospital therapists are clamouring to be involved with the Wii equipment.

It's unfortunate that more than just hospitals are "clamouring" for the Wii, or I'm sure they would have them by now. Kim Phu

Wii Technology Used in Brain Rehabilitation [Edmonton Journal]

Using motion controls is so 2006. Using your brain to dictate game play is teh future. Australian star-up Emotiv created a mind-reading game controller prototype called Project Epoc that's getting over a million dollars in funding from the Australian government. From Emotiv's website:

Project Epoc is a headset that uses a set of sensors to tune into electric signals naturally produced by the brain to detect player thoughts, feelings and expression. It connects wirelessly with all game platforms from consoles to PCs. Project Epoc now makes it possible for games to be controlled and influenced by the player's mind.

Engaging, immersive, and nuanced, Emotiv-inspired game-play will be like nothing ever seen before.

Jacking into the Matrix! We should really strap on Plunkett's head to see what the hell happens. Luke, thoughts? Brian Ashcraft

Brain Controller [Emotiv via Med Gadget]

I try to avoid "girls in games" articles but this is neat. According to a little study at University of Teesside, girls are apt to dig games with lots of fighting, thinking, and story. In other words, splodey games that aren't stupid.

I think this is something we can all embrace, vagina or no.

Clay used software developed at the University of Teesside in Middlesbrough to analyse the 34 best games as listed by 76 female gamers.

The software, called Strange Analyst, builds a profile of each game by trawling through online reviews and extracting key words. Clay found women prefer games with confrontation and attack, investigations and puzzles - and a good story line.

Unfortunately, the article is extremely short and doesn't mention which keywords were used, etc. Still, this sounds right to me. Eliza Gauger

More here [New Scientist, thanks DB]

Game Informer has an interview up with Nintendo's US localization team who worked on translating Brain Age's more Japanese-oriented puzzles into equivalent American analogues. It's a pretty interesting insight on trying to adapt a game from one culture to another. Here's a quote:

By necessity there were a number of training exercises that we had to replace because they relied on unique features of the Japanese language. But in almost every case we found very good analogies that you could use to take its place. Something you wouldn't rely on knowing the reading of a particular Japanese character or that sort of thing. With English, looking for syllable breaks in words can be a little bit harder than it seems. So forcing people to do that made them engage in that same sort of activity that you do when you read aloud, which is one of the best activities for increasing blood flow to the prefrontal cortex. So all of the exercises that we came up with were replacements for the original Japanese exercises were also tested with the little brain colander device that sits on top of your head that measures blood flow.

Because as the disembodied, brain-munching head of Dr. Ryuta Kawashima would be quick to point out, the bloodiest hunks of brain are the tastiest.

Behind Brain Age [Game Informer]
Previously: Making Brain Age