Therapeutic Systems Help Build Executive Functioning Skills

Abstract

Researchers at the University of Central Florida have invented computer simulation technologies to help people with environmental anxiety disorders improve their executive functioning (EF) skills. The technologies may help people with conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and attention deficit disorder (ADD). EF includes cognitive brain processes, such as inhibition, memory, attention, emotional regulation, planning and problem-solving.

The new technologies provide dynamic virtual environments for learning, practicing and improving EF skills—capabilities unavailable in existing technologies. The inventions offer those with sensory overload, such as people with ASD, ways to experience real-world situations safely. For example, a student who may be anxious about a doctor's visit, asking out a peer on a date, or asking for help in a situation can use the technologies to practice and master such skills.

Technical Details

The UCF inventions replicate interactions found to transfer EF skills back into the home, school, and community life of individuals and enable repeated practice. Specific objectives for EF skills are set in the environment with computer-automated avatars interacting in a controlled setting. The apparatus generally consists of sensors, video displays, computer processors, and memory storage devices.

• Technology 34351 enables individuals to develop routine and specific tasks.
• Technology 34502 helps to condition and adapt an individual to real-world environments through computer simulations.
• Technology 11537-03 provides a way to adapt a simulated environment to the sensory thresholds of each individual to develop executive functions without overstimulating or under-challenging the individual's capabilities.
• Technology 11537-04 is an adaptive audio rendering system for conditioning an individual to real-world environments through variable audio output in computer simulations.
• Technology 11537-05 is an adaptive computer simulation rendering system for conditioning an individual suffering from a stress disorder, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• Technology 11537-06 is an adaptive computer simulation rendering system for conditioning an individual who has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Once tasked with an EF skill, an individual is fully or partially immersed in a computer-simulated environment for a time-limited session. The system monitors the individual in real-time, using sensors to detect quantifiable changes in anxiety level.

A common characteristic of the EF skill assigned is that a sufficient increase in anxiety state by the individual hinders successful completion of the skill. In response to an individual’s increased anxiety level, the computer-simulated environment modulates the sensory complexity of one or more simulation features to enable the individual to develop proficiency in EF skills in increasingly complex environments therapeutically. The intensity of a scenario can be escalated or de-escalated depending on the objective, tolerance, and the desired outcome specified by the intervention team aligned with learning versus mastering an EF skill.

In one application, an individual suffering from flight anxiety may be immersed in a virtual, augmented, or mixed reality environment simulating the cabin of a commercial aircraft. The computer simulation may include vibrations and tilting of the subject's chair to simulate takeoffs, landings, and turbulence. The person running the simulation can modify the intensity by controlling the number of passengers (typically automated avatars), the behaviors of the passengers (such as belligerent passengers, crying children, sleeping passengers), ambient noise levels, and dialog loops of the automated avatars.

Partnering Opportunity

The research team is seeking partners for licensing and/or research collaboration.

Stage of Development

Prototype available.

Benefit

Market Application