| This study is currently closed to new participants. If you would like to be considered for future studies and are an individual with an autism diagnosis, or if you identify as autistic, and are between 18 to 54 years of ages, please feel free contacting the researcher by sending an email expressing your interest to david.ruttenberg.18@ucl.ac.uk. Thank you. |
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FORMER STUDY OverviewS:
Study: SensorAble Pilot and Prototype Experiment
Drawing from the lived experience, co-produced and contributory research from the SensorAble Public Participant Information study of 2020, PhD Researcher David Ruttenberg set out to test a single-modality (sound) to determine if sensitivity, attention and anxiety issues could be improved for participants who identified with or had an autism diagnoses. The trials were completed in Q2 2021 and are currently in the data analyses phase. Stay tuned for more information.
Study: SensorAble Public Participant Information
Florida-based PhD Candidate and University College London researcher David Ruttenberg recruited participants diagnosed with autism for both focus group and online surveys. This project was co-produced with individuals incorporating their lived experiences into a wearable prototype. The technology aims to limit and filter unwanted sensory-stimuli and deliver early-warning alerts of distracting and anxiety-producing events at both school and at work.
A portion of the SensorAble Focus Group is funded through Facilitation of Participant Public Information (PPI) under the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in conjunction with a partnership between UCL, University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre and the NHS Foundation Trust (reference: BRC743/DR/104990). The remainder of the study is not associated with any external organising and/or funding association and is self-funded by the researcher.
PrePrint is available here.
Ruttenberg, D., Porayska-Pomsta, K., White, S. J., Dr, & Holmes, J., PhD. (2020, May 3). PPI Questionnaire on Adaptive Wearable Appropriateness as an Autistic Intervention. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/a3jbz
Study: SensorAble Sound Impairment Effect on Cognitive Skill Performance
Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) is a life-long diagnosis, which has a subset of individualized characteristics consisting of hyper-, seeking- and/or hypo-reactivity to sensory inputs or unusual interests (APA, 2013). These sensitivities are evident in both environmental (e.g. apparent response to specific sounds, visual fascination with lights or movements) and physiological domains (e.g. anxiety, respiration or euthermia). As part of a larger PhD Research Project (SensorAble), this pilot study proposes that autistic individuals who exhibit greater distractibility and reduced focus/attention resulting stimuli may benefit from interventions that alter, redirect and/or attenuate stimuli. In particular, Irrelevant-Sound Effect (ISE) consisting of un-targeted and/or modulated sonics cause greater disruption of performance of simultaneous and visual simple tasks compared to baseline ISE that are merely directed. Using gold-standard Stroop experiments, data collected among neurotypical (NT) and ASC individuals at baseline and at various ISE modes result in greater reaction time (RT) improvements among ASC than NT participants. In this study, which focuses on aural distractibility only, data supports that signal processing may provide a gateway to enhancing focus and attention while reduce distractibility and anxiety in other domains.
Preprint is available here.
Ruttenberg, D., Porayska-Pomsta, K., White, S. J., Dr, & Holmes, J., PhD. (2020, May 3). Sound Impairment Effect on Cognitive Skill Performance. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/fng7d