Effects of Visual Cluttering in Virtual Reality on Visuomotor Integration in Autistic Individuals

Goal-directed throwing is ubiquitous in virtual reality (VR) games, demanding spatial and temporal accuracy to perceive position and motion, as well as to plan, and execute movement. Autistic individuals often show superior local visual sensitivity, which may paradoxically delay global visual processing, leading to incongruent visuomotor integration (VMI). Understanding VMI in VR and exploring supportive designs are vital for enhancing accessibility. We assessed VMI in VR with different levels of visual cluttering with autistic (n = 10) and non-autistic (n = 10) adults using overhand throwing with eye and hand tracking, comparing VR to identical physical environments and VR to visually simplified VR. In VR, all participants exhibited decreased throwing accuracy, increased visual scanning, and prolonged hand preparation phases. These differences were more significant in autistic individuals. However, our study highlighted an important effect: simplifying visual information in VR throwing resulted in autistic individuals outperforming non-autistic peers.