Cognitive Attention in Autism using Virtual Reality Learning Tool

Abstract

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder demonstrate impairments in social functions including difficulties in social interactions, social communication and emotion recognition. They struggle in making eye contact and this hampers their learning due to lack of listening. Virtual reality provides a supportive environment for individuals with autism disorders to learn and practice things safely. In this work, a Virtual reality (VR) platform has been developed which acts as a simulative learning tool to teach and train kids affected with autism spectral disorder. EEG signals of participants during flashcard teaching and VR teaching sessions were acquired and functional connectivity parameters were estimated from the acquired signals. This VR experiment with autistic children indicate that their cognitive ability can be enhanced through constructive teaching by using suitable VR environments. Thus it can be extended for different learning disorders in assisting children to practice things safely without any social fear and in enhancing their interpersonal skills.