Bridging Solitary to Social Via Virtual Reality
It’s not often that 2 subjects that pique my interest converge so nicely into one article.
As you know from a number of posts on this blog, I’ve been writing extensively about my experiences in Second Life, and how pioneers in this virtual world are leveraging its unique characteristics to either further their educational mission or help people with what ails them. In my post entitled “Schizophrenia with a Technology Twist,” Dr. Peter Yellowlees was one of those pioneers in his work with schizophrenia and building an experience that communicates some of the sights and sounds a person suffering with schizophrenia might experience in their everyday lives. I wrote 2 posts on the Ann Myers Medical Center in Second Life, each focusing on different people within that group and how they’re leveraging Second Life for its educational values in a variety of areas in the medical field (see posts 1 and 2 by clicking on their respective numbers).
In addition, because of my young son, I’ve been profoundly interested in research on autism given its suggested link to vaccinations in children. I’ve explored this debate on a couple of occasions, both in my post on “The Vaccination Debate,” spurred by Jenny McCarthy’s appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show in September, and on last Friday’s post named, “Hot Spots, Hot Topic,” where I read and posted my thoughts on the recent confirmed link of 1% of autism cases to spontaneous defects in DNA that were not passed to children by their parents.
The convergence of the two topics occurred this week in the Information Technology section of the Chronicle of Higher Education, where the author Katherine Mangan writes about treating those afflicted with autism by using the facilities available in Second Life. In reality, I wasn’t really surprised that this had happened; I suggested that autism might be a good candidate for treatment in a virtual world at the end of “Schizophrenia with a Technology Twist.” But it was encouraging to see that there is a group currently working to apply the technology to real-world patients, and finding some success in the treatment.
According to Mangan, the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas at Dallas has developed a virtual town in Second Life where patients suffering from Asperger’s disease, a milder form of autism marked by normal intelligence, can roleplay different, simulated scenarios that might have caused them stress in real life. According to the center’s director, Susan B. Chapman, the virtual world can be tuned by a clinician to match a patient’s needs, and statistics can be gathered easily measuring their response to the exercise. The safe environment gives the patients an opportunity to “do-over” if they deem the results of their exercise unsatisfactory.
Voice plays a role in these interactions, and bring a real-world feel to the virtual environment. On any given day, patients can be seen interacting in the fabricated world as if they were really meeting in a park, or a store, some other venue. Clinicians and volunteers also interact and assist patients with small talk and conflict resolution, apparently with some success.
One example of this success is Matt Kratz, a 35-year-old graduate student with Asperger’s syndrome. Treated by the program, he feels better prepared to interact socially with people in the real world, and is more capable of identifying situations in which something he says or does may be interpreted in a negative way. His experience is supported by brain-imaging and neurocognitive tests that were taken on patients before and after their virtual-world experience. The three patients tested so far have shown positive results in several areas where they may previously have been hindered, including, as the article puts it, “social appropriateness.”
I tried my hand at logging into Second Life and finding the center, but was unsuccessful in my pursuit. It’s likely been made private to keep out stray, prying eyes (like mine), who could interrupt the work that’s being done there. I will try to get a tour and write up my experiences here at some point in the future (perhaps this might be an interesting virtual field trip for the members of the New York Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical meetup group?). In the meantime, there appear to be several groups within the virtual world designed to support those who might be suffering with anything from severe autism to the milder Asperger’s disease. If you know someone who suffers from one of these disorders, it might be a benefit to them to explore this venue as a place where they can connect with others who better understand how they feel and what they experience daily.
Do you think that virtual reality is a good way to treat some of these mental disorders? What is your experience with autism, Asperger’s or any other mental disorder that might be appropriate for this model of treatment? I’d be curious to know if this kind of treatment needs to be perpetual, or if, at some point, a person is considered “cured.” Additionally, I’d be curious to know if researchers have considered the possibility that some patients might need a chemical component to their treatment, or if the virtual treatment would be enough. We certainly are embarking into an intriguing new therapeutic area as these worlds become more prolific, but for what consequences, if any, should we prepare ourselves as we delve in further?
As always, I welcome your thoughts.
