M is for Myg

Okay so it’s not the sexiest of blog post titles. And to be honest I wasn’t planning to cover the heavy stuff first, but being a RL mental health professional I was just blown away when I read this today:

Research on Asperger’s Syndrome done in Second Life shows early promise. That’s an SLNN article (which I found via The Grid Live) about Brigadoon, a private community created by Braintalk. (Okay caveat, that article is a bit, erm, confusing.) The author states this:

“Brain-imaging and neuro-cognitive tests on the patients have shown, both before and after visiting SL, improvement in the areas of social appropriateness. The effectiveness is still being evaluated but the preliminary results look promising.”

Which is awfully exciting but sadly there’s no reference to any specific research being done (study? authors? I think it’s probably research by the Center for Brain Health, but I’m not sure). Asperger’s is a form of autism where people are cognitively high functioning but have lower functioning in the brain areas responsible for social interaction. If the quote above is true, the areas of the brain responsible for social cognition are demonstrating improved functioning after treatments incorporating SL. And they’re proving it with probably CT-scans and fMRIs. Which is, well, awesome.

This video shows how SL is used in treatment by the Center for Brain Health. A client with Asperger’s demonstrates how he uses SL with a clinician to practice a job interview. According to the Center for Brain Health, this actually helps the brain form new neuro-pathways – reteaching the brain essential skills necessary to cope in both worlds with other humans. The video claims Second Life can also provide this kind of assistance to people with Schizophernia and ADHD.

I for one can definitely see how. Second Life social encounters appear to stimulate the brain differently from RL social interactions, and might very well afford those who are somehow compromised in RL situations advantages. Consider yourself – do you feel differently when you’re interacting with others in SL? Less inhibited perhaps? Or maybe more? This difference has got to be partially due to the lack of non-verbal social cues, (which those with Asperger’s struggle to interpret and respond to in RL).

In terms of helping out with other kinds of psychiatric disorders, I definitely see a use for SL role play, therapy sessions and groups using voice technology being able to assist people with a lot of different mental health issues as well. Imagine the agony of someone with crippling depression or anxiety who can’t leave the house, and the potential help it would be for that person to log in and receive treatment in SL, at least until they were able to go in person. And for anxiety and social phobias, I think the idea of gradual exposure through simulated experience in SL could be a huge assistance.

But that’s just my opinion.

Gosh, this article wasn’t funny at all, was it? Meh, sorry. But I’m trying to compile the good stuff about SL, and in all honesty, as great as it is for many things I think this could be one of the more important contributions SL makes to RL.

Happy Saturday, folks.

Eds. note: Mygdala March is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in RL with a private practice (for teenagers) and a background in in-patient psychiatric treatment, which is why she has opinions and such about things like this…

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 19th, 2008 at 11:31 am and is filed under Real Life, SL is good for, Second Life.