Impact of Visual Clutter in VR on Visuomotor Integration in Autistic Individuals

Abstract

Autistic individuals often exhibit superior local visual sensitivity but may struggle with global visual processing, affecting their visuomotor integration (VMI). Goal-directed overhand throwing is common in both the physical environment (PE) and virtual reality (VR) games, demanding spatial and temporal accuracy to perceive position and motion, and precise VMI. Understanding VMI in autistic individuals and exploring supportive designs in VR are crucial for rehabilitation and improving accessibility. We assessed static visuospatial accuracy and VMI with autistic ( ${n} = 16$ ) and non-autistic ( ${n} = 16$ ) adults using spatial estimation and overhand throwing tasks with eye and hand tracking, comparing VR to PE. In VR, all participants exhibited reduced visual accuracy, increased visual scanning, and shortened quiet eye duration and eye following duration after the ball release, which led to decreased throwing performance. However, simplifying visual information in VR throwing improved these measures, and resulted in autistic individuals outperforming non-autistic peers.