{"id":24823,"date":"2026-09-14T12:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T08:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/?p=24823"},"modified":"2026-09-14T12:15:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T08:15:59","slug":"how-a-new-video-game-helps-researchers-explore-sensory-perception-in-autism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/how-a-new-video-game-helps-researchers-explore-sensory-perception-in-autism\/","title":{"rendered":"How a New Video Game Helps Researchers Explore Sensory Perception in Autism"},"content":{"rendered":"

For researchers studying autism, there’s been a persistent problem: much of the research excludes people with more severe symptoms, particularly those who are nonverbal. Scientists know autism alters perception\u2014seeing details others miss, focusing on patterns rather than faces, experiencing heightened or dimmed sensations\u2014but the precise brain mechanisms remain obscure.<\/p>\n

Now, Boston University researchers have created a solution: a video game that can measure how people with autism understand and interpret information, playable by those across the entire autism spectrum, including people who are nonverbal.<\/p>\n

The game, called Geode (Gathering Evidence to Optimize DEcisions), could spur fresh insights into how the autistic brain works and help refine the development and testing of new drugs and therapies.<\/p>\n

The Game<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Geode is a gem hunt. Players choose a character, follow a treasure map, and grab jewels. As they play, flashes appear on the screen’s edge\u2014if one side sparkles more, it’s hiding gems.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Source: Boston University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While players collect jewels, researchers track how well they spot the flashes, which vary in number, duration, and timing.<\/p>\n

“We can collect some very detailed information about how you’re making decisions, perceiving the world, and learning to play the game,” says Benjamin Scott, a BU assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences who led the research.<\/p>\n

There’s a crucial design feature: no instructions. Players just jump in and learn as they go. This levels the playing field for people across the autism spectrum and allows children with severe communication-related symptoms to participate.<\/p>\n

“We found we can get these kids to engage and tell us, in their own language, how they’re perceiving the world,” Scott says.<\/p>\n

The Study<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In a trial published in Science Advances<\/em><\/a>, more than 300 adolescents aged 11 to 17 played the game. Just over 200 had autism, covering the breadth of the disorder’s spectrum; the remainder were neurotypical siblings.<\/p>\n

Most players\u2014including those with profound autism\u2014quickly grasped the rules and adjusted as the game became harder. But the learning curve differed significantly. Teens with autism took longer to learn and had reduced accuracy compared to neurotypical players.<\/p>\n

The game helped pinpoint a potential cause: “noisy evidence integration”\u2014a phenomenon relating to how the brain handles and computes sensory information.<\/p>\n

“The deficit seems to be in a component of perception called perceptual integration, where you are accumulating information over time to form a complex idea about the world,” Scott says.<\/p>\n

The game is not designed to be a diagnostic tool. It can reveal how people see the world and learn, but it cannot pinpoint autism versus another neuropsychiatric disorder.<\/p>\n

For now, Scott sees greater potential for use in clinical trials.<\/p>\n

From Animal Research to Human Collaboration<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The no-instructions approach has roots in Scott’s research on how animals make decisions. In his Laboratory of Comparative Cognition, he’s analyzed how songbirds learn and how rats choose between speed and accuracy\u2014meaning he’s accustomed to study participants who can’t easily follow instructions.<\/p>\n

This brings a potential benefit: helping scientists better align studies of human and animal behavior. Because animals and humans can play virtually identical games, “we can directly measure whether autism risk genes affect humans and animals in the same way,” Scott says.<\/p>\n

The research was funded with support from the Simons Foundation. Coauthors include Tager-Flusberg and Joseph McGuire, a CAS associate professor of psychological and brain sciences.<\/p>\n

Source: <\/span>Boston University<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n



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For researchers studying autism, there’s been a persistent problem: much of the research excludes people with more severe symptoms, particularly those who are nonverbal. Scientists know autism alters perception\u2014seeing details others miss, focusing on patterns rather than faces, experiencing heightened or dimmed sensations\u2014but the precise brain mechanisms remain obscure. Now, Boston University researchers have created […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":24824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1587],"tags":[2028,7073,7066,7072],"class_list":["post-24823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-research","tag-autism","tag-boston-university","tag-geode","tag-video-game"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24829,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24823\/revisions\/24829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}