Virtual Reality and Augmented Social Training for Autism

描述(由申请人提供)：本申请描述了一项新颖而创新的研究计划，旨在研究虚拟现实(VR)技术的治疗应用，以解决高功能自闭症(HFA)儿童社交技能训练(SST)的普遍性问题。多项研究表明，SST有可能显著改善HFA儿童的适应行为和生活质量。然而，成本和安全问题阻碍了SST干预范例包括有效的方法来实践和推广超出干预直接背景的社会技能。因此，推广问题目前阻碍了为HFA儿童制定最有效的SST方案的进展。解决这一问题的一个潜在方法是应用虚拟现实技术的进步，为HFA儿童提供社交技能练习环境。虚拟现实环境可以为HFA儿童提供各种各样但更可控和更安全的社交环境，比在“现实生活”中可用来练习社交技能练习，从而最大限度地提高学习，同时将失败和负面强化学习的风险降至最低(McGeorge等人。2001年；Parsons等人。2006年；斯坦登和布朗出版社，2005年)。因此，此应用程序的R21阶段的一个主要目标是将虚拟社会交互研究中的专业知识与自闭症临床科学中的专业知识结合起来，以开发VR社交技能练习任务，这些任务可用于增强当前针对HFA儿童的SST干预方法。R33阶段的目标是对42名8岁至18岁的HFA儿童进行SST VR增强的初步随机病例对照测试。R33阶段的研究还将设计为提供关于执行自我监控措施和与行为激活相关的动机的新假设的经验测试，这些假设可能预测HFA对治疗的反应的个体差异(Mundy等人。2007)。预计这一研究计划的结果将支持开展一项更大规模的VR增强SST对HFA儿童的疗效随机对照研究。这一结果还将支持对自闭症干预反应中影响个体差异的因素进行更大范围的基于理论的检验。此外，尽管这项研究的最初治疗重点将是针对HFA儿童的SST，但有理由预计，在本研究过程中开发的一般原则、程序和VR干预平台将有可能在一系列背景(即家庭、诊所和学校)中广泛、经济有效地应用于对各种其他神经发育障碍(如ADHD)的干预。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application describes a novel and innovative program of research designed to examine the therapeutic applications of virtual reality (VR) technology to solve the problem of generalizability of social skills training (SST) for children with higher functioning autism (HFA). Several studies indicate that SST has the potential to significantly improve the adaptive behaviors and quality of life of HFA children. However, cost and safety issues have prevented SST intervention paradigms from including effective methods to practice and generalize social skills beyond the immediate contexts of intervention. Therefore, the problem of generalizability currently impedes progress on the development of optimally effective SST programs for HFA children. One potential means for addressing this problem is to apply advances in VR technology to provide social skills practice environments for HFA children. VR environments may provide HFA children with varied but more controlled and safer social contexts, than are available in "real life", to practice social skills exercises that maximize learning while minimizing risks of failure and negative reinforcement learning ((McGeorge et al. 2001; Parsons et al. 2006; Standen & Brown, 2005). Therefore, a major aim of the R21 phase of this application is to bring together expertise in the study of virtual social interactions with expertise in the clinical science of autism to develop VR social skills practice tasks that may be used to augment current SST intervention methods for HFA children. A goal of the R33 phase is to provide an initial randomized case control test of the effectiveness of VR augmentation of SST with 42 HFA children between the ages of 8 and 18. The R33 phase of research will also be designed to provide empirical tests of novel hypotheses about measures of executive self monitoring and motivation associated with behavioral activation t may predict individual differences in responsiveness of HFA to treatment (Mundy et al. 2007). It is anticipated that the results of this program of research will support the development of a larger randomized controlled efficacy study of VR augmented SST for HFA children. The results will also support larger theory based examinations of the factors that affect individual differences in intervention responsiveness in autism. In addition, although the initial therapeutic focus of this research will be on SST for HFA children it is reasonable to expect that the general principles, procedures and VR intervention platforms developed in the course of this research will have the potential for widespread, cost-effective applications to interventions for a variety of other neuro- developmental disorders (e.g. ADHD) across a range of context (i.e. home, clinics and schools).