People with autism often come at life from a different angle—seeing details others miss, focusing on patterns rather than faces, experiencing heightened or dimmed physical sensations. Although researchers have tracked some of the many ways the neurodevelopmental disorder alters perception of the world, the precise brain mechanisms involved remain obscure, says Boston University researcher Benjamin Scott. One reason: Research often excludes people with more severe symptoms.

Scott and his colleagues have created a more inclusive approach: a video game that measures how people with autism understand and interpret information—and that can be played by people across the disorder’s spectrum of symptom severity, including those who are nonverbal. The researchers say it could spur fresh insights into how the autistic brain works and help refine the development and testing of new drugs and therapies.

Around 1 in 31 children in the United States have autism, according to the nonprofit Autism Speaks, with symptoms that affect communication and other social skills and include restricted and repetitive behaviors. At the moment, scientists studying these issues often rely on subjective assessments from family members—particularly of people with significant communication issues—rather than input from the patients themselves. The game changes that.