Refraction: Neurophysiological and Psychological Viewpoints.

Abstract

This brief monograph presents the author's views on refraction which are based on an extensive and long experience. He strives to inject some new life into what he believes is an unpopular subject. The central idea is that cerebral visual mechanisms play a fundamentally important role in refraction and that it is a fallacy to evaluate visual acuity solely in terms of geometrical optics. The heart of the book is a presentation of the author's own investigative work and statistical evaluation of clinical patients with astigmatism. He presents evidence to show that central mechanisms are important in the ability of patients to adapt and adjust (accommodate) to astigmatism. He emphasizes that subjective tests are primarily tests of neural function. The idea that astigmatic accommodation has both a peripheral and central component is interesting and worth discussing. It is refreshing to have an experienced ophthalmologist set down his ideas on a