Lex Stinson¹, Lindsay Houck¹; ¹Rhode Island College

Sensitivity to visual stimuli is often reported as a symptom of many conditions such as migraines, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Sensitivity to bright light and high color saturation are most common. Though these visual sensitivities are noticeable, there is little research on how they impact individuals during day-to-day visual tasks. This study explored how visual sensitivities associated with ASD, ADHD, and migraines affect performance on a visual search task in an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment. For each trial, the room brightness or color saturation was manipulated to high or low settings, and visual search performance was measured with reaction time (RT) and d prime (d’). Other measures included questionnaires identifying traits of ASD, ADHD, general sensory processing, and migraine symptomology. Preliminary analyses (n=23) found a correlation between sensory processing and d’ (r(136) = -0.21, p = 0.013) with higher sensory sensitivity associated with better performance. ADHD traits also correlated with d’ (r(136) = -0.18, p = 0.031) with fewer ADHD traits associated with better performance. For reaction time, there was a significant correlation with the number of days impacted by migraines (r(136) = -0.17, p = 0.045) meaning people with more days impacted by migraines responded more quickly. In the high saturation condition, more ASD traits were correlated with faster reaction times (r(21) = -0.47, p = 0.025). This suggests that certain environmental conditions can differentially impact individuals with more traits associated with ASD, ADHD, and migraines. Future analyses will investigate additional sensory modalities, such as tactile and auditory processing, and their interaction with these and other individual difference measures. These findings have implications for those with sensory sensitivities associated with various conditions and the impact of visual perception and completion of day-to-day visual tasks.

Acknowledgements: The Rhode Island College Graduate Student Support Fund