Adaptive model of the gradient index of the human lens. II. Optics of the accommodating aging lens

Abstract

A simple, parametric model of the gradient refractive index distribution (GRIN) of the human lens with conicoid surfaces able to adapt to individual distributions as well as to the changes of the lens shape and structure with age and accommodation is presented. The first part of this work was published in a companion paper [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A24, 2175 (2007)]. It included the development of the mathematical formulation of the adaptive model; the validation of its customization capability by fitting, sample by sample, a set of in vitro refractive index distributions of lenses of different ages, ranging from 7 to 82 years, from the recent literature; and an average model of the (in vitro) aging crystalline lens. Here we extrapolate that in vitro GRIN model by assuming that the same structural parameters are valid for the living lens. Then, recent data of the changes of the shape of the aging lens with accommodation from the literature are used to build an aging and accommodating lens model. This is straightforward since the GRIN model adapts automatically to the chosen external lens geometry. A strong coupling was found between the adaptive GRIN distributions and the conic constants affecting the refractive power. To account for the lens paradox and the reported changes in lens spherical aberration with age and accommodation, age- and accommodation-dependent functions for the anterior and posterior internal conic constants were derived through optimization.