Role of high-order aberrations in senescent changes in spatial vision

• DOI: 10.1167/9.2.24
• Publication Date: 2009-05-20T23:25:11Z
• Authors: S. L. Elliott; S. S. Choi; N. Doble; J. L. Hardy; J. W. Evans; J. S. Werner
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Aging; Adolescent; Visual Acuity; Eye; Refraction, Ocular; Medical and Health Sciences; high-order aberration; adaptive optics; Contrast Sensitivity; Young Adult; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Clinical Research; Ocular; 80 and over; Humans; Eye Disease and Disorders of Vision; Ophthalmology and Optometry; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; contrast sensitivity; Biomedical and Clinical Sciences; aging; Psychology and Cognitive Sciences; Neurosciences; spatial vision; Experimental Psychology; Ophthalmology and optometry; Miosis; Refractive Errors; 620; Refraction; Space Perception; Female

The contributions of optical and neural factors to age-related losses in spatial vision are not fully understood. We used closed-loop adaptive optics to test the visual benefit of correcting monochromatic high-order aberrations (HOAs) on spatial vision for observers ranging in age from 18 to 81 years. Contrast sensitivity was measured monocularly using a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) procedure for sinusoidal gratings over 6 mm and 3 mm pupil diameters. Visual acuity was measured using a spatial 4AFC procedure. Over a 6 mm pupil, young observers showed a large benefit of AO at high spatial frequencies, whereas older observers exhibited the greatest benefit at middle spatial frequencies, plus a significantly larger increase in visual acuity. When age-related miosis is controlled, young and old observers exhibited a similar benefit of AO for spatial vision. An increase in HOAs cannot account for the complete senescent decline in spatial vision. These results may indicate a larger role of additional optical factors when the impact of HOAs is removed, but also lend support for the importance of neural factors in age-related changes in spatial vision.