Using Virtual Reality Technology to Explore the Inner Perceptual World of Autism, Solus/Sublime?

概述和基本原理：注意：描述自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的正确术语是有争议的。在这里，“孤独症”是ASD的简写，也涵盖了自闭症综合征/障碍，儿童期孤独症/自闭症障碍和PDD-NOS。自闭症是一种常见的神经发育疾病，直接影响至少1%的英国人口（Baird et al，2006;Brugha et al，2013）。近年来，人们已经清楚地认识到，尽管传统上以自闭症为特征的社交困难很重要，但这种情况的感觉特征深刻地影响了日常生活，也可能具有病因学意义（Pellicano & Burr，2012）。这些包括对日常感官刺激的超（或过度）敏感性和低（或不足）敏感性的组合，以及所谓的“感官寻求”行为，即寻求特定类型的感官刺激。例如，在应对突然的噪音或强烈的气味方面存在极大的困难，对大的温度变化没有反应，以及“自我刺激”行为，如重复的拍手（Robertson & Simmons，2013）。关于这些感觉特征的证据是如此有力，以至于它们被列为最新的诊断标准的一部分（阿帕，2013）。自闭症个体的报告清楚地表明，他们的感知与神经正常者的感知有质的不同（Grandin，2008; Fleischmann，2012）。自闭症感知的方面通常被报道为“碎片化的世界”，其中世界似乎由孤立的物体组成，而不是神经型感知的连贯整体，以及“感官过载”，其中每天感官刺激的积累变得势不可挡，并可能导致恐慌发作（Frith，2003; Robertson & Simmons，2015）。一个关键的困难是如何理解自闭症感知的真实性。大多数数据来自间接报告，通常来自报告孩子对感官刺激反应的护理人员问卷（Glod et al，2015）。有几个生动的描述，从个人能够报告他们的经验口头或以其他方式（格兰丁，2006年; http：//carlysvoice.com/home/aboutcarly/），但这些缺乏科学严谨性，可能已被编辑和合著者操纵。一些研究（如Smith & Sharp，2013; Robertson & Simmons，2015）使用结构化访谈和焦点小组等定性技术探索了自闭症患者的感官体验，但这些研究受到自闭症患者准确表达其体验的能力的限制。自闭症患者的感知在实验室实验中使用感知心理物理学技术通过直接测量进行了研究。然而，在将这些实验的结果与自闭症患者的真实感知体验相匹配方面几乎没有成功，可能是由于缺乏生态有效性（参见Simmons et al，2009; Haeson et al，2010）。为了解决这些问题，我们将探讨如何使用虚拟现实（VR）技术来表达感知体验。

Overview and Rationale: NB: Correct terms for describing the conditions formallycalled Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are controversial. Here, "autism" isshorthand for ASD, covering also Asperger's Syndrome/Disorder, ChildhoodAutism/Autistic Disorder and PDD-NOS. Autism is a common neuro-developmentalcondition directly affecting at least 1% of the UK population (Baird et al, 2006;Brugha et al, 2013). In recent years it has become clear that although the socialdifficulties which traditionally characterized autism are important, there are sensoryfeatures of this condition which profoundly affect everyday life and may also haveaetiological significance (Pellicano & Burr, 2012). These comprise a combination ofhyper-(or over)sensitivity and hypo-(or under)sensitivity to everyday sensorystimulation, combined with what is known as "sensory seeking" behaviour, whereparticular types of sensory stimulation are sought after. Examples are extremedifficulties in coping with sudden noises or strong smells, unresponsiveness to largetemperature changes and "self-stimulatory" behaviour like repetitive hand-flapping(Robertson & Simmons, 2013). Evidence for these sensory features is now so strongthat they are included as part of the latest diagnostic criteria (APA, 2013).The reports of autistic individuals make clear that their perception is qualitativelydifferent from that of neurotypicals (Grandin, 2008; Fleischmann, 2012). Aspects ofautistic perception commonly reported are a "fragmented world", where the worldseems to consist of isolated objects rather than the coherent whole thatneurotypicals perceive, and "sensory overload" where an accumulation of everydaysensory stimulation becomes overwhelming and can lead to panic attacks (Frith,2003; Robertson & Simmons, 2015). A key difficulty is how to understand the truenature of perception in autism. Most data come from indirect reports, usually fromcaregiver questionnaires reporting their child's reactions to sensory stimulation(Glod et al, 2015). There are several vivid descriptions from individuals able to reporttheir experiences verbally or otherwise (Grandin, 2006;http://carlysvoice.com/home/aboutcarly/), but these lack scientific rigour and mayhave been manipulated by editors and co-authors. A few studies (e.g. Smith & Sharp,2013; Robertson & Simmons, 2015) have explored autistic sensory experience usingqualitative techniques like structured interviews and focus groups, but they arelimited by the ability of autistic individuals to articulate their experiences accurately.Autistic perception has been investigated by direct measurement using thetechniques of perceptual psychophysics in lab-based experiments. However, therehas been little success in matching the results of these experiments with the real-lifeperceptual experiences of autistics, possibly due to a lack of ecological validity (seeSimmons et al, 2009; Haeson et al, 2010). To address these problems we will explorehow to articulate perceptual experience using Virtual Reality (VR) technology.