Analysis of knowledge acquisition and emotional behaviour related to autism in a 3D virtual reality immersion

Abstract

Introduction: ASD is a neurological and developmental disorder caused by differences in the brain from typical development individuals. These individuals have difficulties processing auditory and visual information. The age of the individual and his/her IQ level affect his/her ability to process this information. In addition, they show a reduced ability to acquire knowledge. An immersive virtual reality exposure was applied at the same time heart rate, EDA, and eye tracking measures were obtained to hit the mark if a typical development individual is capable to control his/her emotions and to acquire a specific knowledge in a realistic environment. Methods: BITalino software is applied to obtain physiological measures of heart rate and EDA. HTC-Vive virtual reality glasses with an eye tracker incorporated were used to determine pupil dilation and gaze direction. A multiple-tests of the lesson taught during the virtual reality exposure was requested to obtained information about the acquired knowledge. Results: Higher arousal in the activity of heart rate and EDA happened in conditioned participants with distractors in the virtual reality exposure, whereas control participants have a lower heart rate and EDA. Additionally, control participants have more correct responses on the posterior multiple tests than conditioned participants. Conclusions: Auditory and visual distractors increase the arousal of heart rate and EDA, related to a change in participant emotion. The knowledge acquisition of conditioned participants was lower than from control ones. These facts lead to a harder acquisition of information and higher emotions from ASD individuals than from typical development.