Effects of Neural Adaptation to Habitual Spherical Aberration on Depth of Focus

TL;DR

This study shows that people's depth of focus is influenced by their long-term exposure to spherical aberration, suggesting that optical corrections should consider individual visual habits.

Contribution

The study reveals a quadratic relationship between habitual spherical aberration and subjective depth of focus when induced with different aberrations.

Findings

Positive habitual SA groups had larger depth of focus with positive induced SA.

Negative habitual SA groups had smaller depth of focus with positive induced SA.

Depth of focus was maximized when induced SA matched the participant's habitual SA.

Abstract

We investigated how long-term visual experience with habitual spherical aberration (SA) influences subjective depth of focus (DoF). Nine healthy cycloplegic eyes with habitual SAs of different signs and magnitudes were enrolled. An adaptive optics (AO) visual simulator was used to measure through-focus high-contrast visual acuity after correcting all monochromatic aberrations and imposing +0.5 μm and −0.5 μm SAs for a 6-mm pupil. The positive (n=6) and negative (n=3) SA groups ranged from 0.17 to 0.8 μm and from −1.2 to −0.12 μm for a 6-mm pupil, respectively. For the positive habitual SA group, the median DoF with positive AO-induced SA (2.18D) was larger than that with negative AO-induced SA (1.91D); for the negative habitual SA group, a smaller DoF was measured with positive AO-induced SA (1.81D) than that with negative AO-induced SA (2.09D). The difference in the DoF of individual participants between the induced positive and negative SA groups showed a quadratic relationship with the habitual SA. Subjective DoF tended to be larger when the induced SA in terms of the sign and magnitude was closer to the participant’s habitual SA, suggesting the importance of considering the habitual SA when applying the extended DoF method using optical or surgical procedures.

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