Contrary to popular belief, not all video games cause “brain damage.” A group of Penn State researchers are currently working on developing a video game that can help autistic adolescents with social communications.
Suzy Scherf, assistant professor of psychology and head of the Laboratory of Developmental Neuroscience at Penn State, received a grant titled, “Using serious game technology to improve sensitivity to eye gaze in autism,” by the National Institutes of Mental Health in order to help adolescents with autism pick up on social cues more easily.
Evolving out of a series of other related projects, Scherf and other researchers are hoping this game will help the individuals interpret eye gazes on others, as well as identifying faces better, Scherf said.
“I feel compelled to help not only learn more about autism but also help the individuals and their families,” Scherf said.
Designed through a first-person perspective, the game is set up with different plots such as a detective plot, Scherf said. Individuals then try to solve these certain plots through interaction with the human avatars on the game.
The human avatars will give clues to the individual playing the game by turning their head or shifting their body to point to the direction of where the individual should head to next, research member and assistant professor of health and human development and family studies Charles Geier said.
Geier helps Scherf with eye-tracking methods and analysis on the individuals tested.
By approaching these virtual humans and conversing with them, researchers hope these individuals will be able to grasp these social cues and practice them in their everyday life, Geier said.
“This is not a real trivial game, it’s more about motivating the adolescents to want to play this game more than anything,” Scherf said.
Aside from testing whether the game actually works on individuals, researchers also want to know whether the adolescent’s behavior improves because he or she is playing a game or this particular game, Scherf said.
“There is an early prototype of the game but with this new grant, our objective is to finish completing the development of the game and in two years be able to test if the game actually works,” research member and post-doctoral scholar Elisabeth Whyte said.
Researchers have done some initial testing but will not be starting the actual testing of the game until next year, Scherf said.
“Autism affects a lot of people so hopefully through cognitive interaction, this can lead individuals to have better lives,” Geier said.
