Binocular visual performance and summation after correcting higher order aberrations

Ramkumar Sabesan,Geunyoung Yoon,Len Zheleznyak

doi:10.1364/boe.3.003176

Abstract

Although the ocular higher order aberrations degrade the retinal image substantially, most studies have investigated their effect on vision only under monocular conditions. Here, we have investigated the impact of binocular higher order aberration correction on visual performance and binocular summation by constructing a binocular adaptive optics (AO) vision simulator. Binocular monochromatic aberration correction using AO improved visual acuity and contrast sensitivity significantly. The improvement however, differed from that achieved under monocular viewing. At high spatial frequency (24 c/deg), the monocular benefit in contrast sensitivity was significantly larger than the benefit achieved binocularly. In addition, binocular summation for higher spatial frequencies was the largest in the presence of subject’s native higher order aberrations and was reduced when these aberrations were corrected. This study thus demonstrates the vast potential of binocular AO vision testing in understanding the impact of ocular optics on habitual binocular vision.

Highlights

Optical and surgical methods, such as adaptive optics(AO) [1,2,3,4,5], phase plates [6,7], customized soft contact lenses [8,9] and laser refractive surgery [10] have been proposed to compensate higher order aberrations to provide improvement in vision beyond conventional sphero-cylindrical refraction
AO has been introduced in such vision testing instruments either in one eye or in both eyes simultaneously to examine the effect of higher order aberration manipulation on binocular vision [30,31]
The variability of the wavefront measurements was smaller than 0.02 μm RMS across subjects and optical conditions

Summary

Introduction

Optical and surgical methods, such as adaptive optics(AO) [1,2,3,4,5], phase plates [6,7], customized soft contact lenses [8,9] and laser refractive surgery [10] have been proposed to compensate higher order aberrations to provide improvement in vision beyond conventional sphero-cylindrical refraction. Binocular summation is not entirely determined by neural factors in the visual system, and depends on interocular differences in optical quality This is evident from previous studies of binocular vision in the presence of interocular difference in optical quality, pertaining to anisometropia [18,19], addition of monocular defocus [20], interocular differences in higher order aberrations [21], corneal shape [22,23], contrast and spatial frequency [24]. Such interocular differences in optical aberrations occur routinely after clinical procedures such as laser refractive surgery [23,25]. The implication of this investigation on wavefront-guided treatments is discussed

Methods

Results

Conclusion