Sensory abnormalities are experienced by 90 – 95% of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a developmental disorder that impacts at least 1 in 132 children worldwide. Virtual reality (VR) technologies can precisely present sensory stimuli and be integrated with human sensing technologies to automatically detect sensory responses, and thus has a potential to improve sensory assessment objectiveness and sensitivity, compared to traditional questionnaire-based methods. However, there is a lack of evidence to demonstrate this potential. Therefore, we designed and developed a preliminary sensory assessment VR system (SAVR) to objectively and precisely evaluate the visual and touch sensory processing differences between adolescents with ASD and their typically developing (TD) peers through game playing. A controlled experiment was conducted with 12 adolescents with ASD and 12 TD adolescents. Participants’ sensory pattern was assessed by SAVR and a widely used traditional questionnaire-the Adult/Adolescent Sensory Profile (AASP). We hypothesized that: 1) compared to AASP, SAVR can find more significant differences between the two participant groups, and 2) there are significant and strong correlations between the SAVR results and the AASP results. Statistical analyses of the experimental data supported the hypotheses. The implication and limitations of this preliminary exploration as well as future works are discussed.

中文翻译：

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基于虚拟现实的自闭症谱系障碍青少年视觉和触摸感觉处理评估的初步探索

90％至95％的自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者经历了感觉异常，这是一种发展性疾病，影响了全世界132名儿童中的至少1名。与传统的基于问卷调查的方法相比，虚拟现实（VR）技术可以精确呈现感官刺激，并且可以与人类感测技术集成以自动检测感官反应，因此具有改善感官评估客观性和敏感性的潜力。但是，缺乏证据证明这种潜力。因此，我们设计并开发了一个初步的感官评估VR系统（SAVR），以客观，准确地评估ASD青少年和他们通常发育的（TD）同伴之间在视觉和触觉上的感觉差异。对12名ASD青少年和12 TD青少年进行了对照实验。通过SAVR和广泛使用的传统问卷-成人/青少年感觉概况（AASP）评估了参与者的感觉模式。我们假设：1）与AASP相比，SAVR可以在两个参与者组之间发现更大的差异，并且2）SAVR结果与AASP结果之间存在显着且强烈的相关性。实验数据的统计分析支持这些假设。讨论了这种初步探索以及未来工作的含义和局限性。SAVR可以发现两个参与者组之间存在更显着的差异，并且2）SAVR结果与AASP结果之间存在显着且强烈的相关性。实验数据的统计分析支持这些假设。讨论了这种初步探索以及未来工作的含义和局限性。SAVR可以发现两个参与者组之间存在更显着的差异，并且2）SAVR结果与AASP结果之间存在显着且强烈的相关性。实验数据的统计分析支持这些假设。讨论了这种初步探索以及未来工作的含义和局限性。