Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas Center for Brain Health have been using SL as a therapy tool for people with autism since 2008, and now an academic paper just published online has the results. (Direct link to the paper here.) At Brain Health, SL was used to simulate a number of real world scenarios such as a therapists' office (see screenshot above, and video below), so someone with Asperger's (for example) could roleplay common day-to-day interactions from the security of their computer, through an avatar that he or she controlled, and then get guidance on improving their social interaction, to better prepare for doing the real thing. According to Dr. Michelle R. Kandalaft, lead author of "Virtual Reality Social Cognition Training for Young Adults with High-Functioning Autism", published in the Journal of Austim and Development Disorders, the results were highly promising:

"The progress of increasing social cognition as measured in our study was comparable to what other researchers are finding," Dr. Kandalaft tells me in e-mail. "[A]lthough it is not a great leap in skills, we feel that these changes are meaningful when it comes to improving social abilities."

However, she adds, it's one thing for someone to improve their social abilities in a virtual world, and applying the lessons they learned in real life: