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

概述和基本原理：注：描述正式称为自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的情况的正确术语是有争议的。在这里，“自闭症”是ASD的缩写，也包括阿斯伯格综合症/障碍、儿童自闭症/自闭症和PDD-NOS。自闭症是一种常见的神经发育疾病，直接影响到至少1%的英国人口(Baird等人，2006年；Brugha等人，2013年)。近年来，人们清楚地认识到，尽管自闭症的传统特征--社会困难很重要，但这种疾病的一些感官特征会深刻地影响日常生活，也可能具有病因学意义(Pellicano&Burr，2012)。这包括对日常感觉刺激的高度(或过度)敏感和低(或不足)敏感的组合，以及所谓的“感觉寻求”行为，即特定类型的感觉刺激受到追捧。例如，在应对突如其来的噪音或强烈气味方面存在极端困难，对温度的大幅变化反应迟钝，以及反复拍手等“自我刺激”行为(Robertson&Simmons，2013)。这些感官特征的证据现在是如此强大，以至于它们被纳入最新的诊断标准(APA，2013)。自闭症患者的报告表明，他们的感知与神经典型患者的感知有本质上的不同(格兰丁，2008；弗莱施曼，2012)。自闭症感知的一些方面通常被报道为“支离破碎的世界”，其中世界似乎由孤立的物体组成，而不是神经型患者所感知的连贯的整体，以及“感觉过载”，其中日常感觉刺激的积累变得不堪重负，并可能导致恐慌症发作(Frith，2003；Robertson&Simmons，2015)。一个关键的困难是如何理解自闭症患者感知的真实情况。大多数数据来自间接报告，通常来自照顾者问卷，报告他们的孩子对感觉刺激的反应(Glod等人，2015)。有几个生动的描述来自能够口头或以其他方式报告他们的经历的个人(格兰丁，2006；http://carlysvoice.com/home/aboutcarly/)，)，但这些描述缺乏科学严谨性，可能被编辑和合著者操纵。一些研究(如Smith&Sharp，2013；Robertson&Simmons，2015)使用结构访谈和焦点小组等定性技术探索了自闭症患者的感觉体验，但这些研究受到自闭症个体准确表达自己的体验的能力的限制。自闭症感知是通过实验室实验中的知觉心理物理学技术直接测量来进行的。然而，在将这些实验的结果与自闭症患者的真实感知经验相匹配方面几乎没有成功，这可能是由于缺乏生态有效性(参见Simmons等人，2009；Haeson等人，2010)。为了解决这些问题，我们将探索如何使用虚拟现实(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.