25/10/2016

Author: Juan F. Zapata-Díaz. The University of Manchester.

There is an increasing interest in the role of higher-order aberrations  (HOA) might play on depth-of-field (DoFi) of the eye. This knowledge could be of particular interest to enhance the devices (intraocular lenses, contact lenses…) used to mitigate the effects of presbyopia. Two of the partners of the Ageye consortium, The University of Manchester and The University of Murcia, have performed an original study in which an adaptive optics system was used to measure, correct and simulate the optical error (wavefront aberrations) of several participants. This allowed measuring depth-of-field of participants under 3 conditions: 1) with their own HOA; 2) after correction of their HOA; and, 3) under simulation of other participants’ HOA. This approach allowed participants to experience how other people see, as they would do with their own eyes. The results showed that the impact of optical factors on DoFi is approximately 20%, in average, of the DoFi total extent. Furthermore, the same HOA pattern had different effect on DoFi of different participants, showing an important role of factors outside the pure optical system of eye, as the neural processing of the retinal image.These results suggest that approaches that induce HOA to extend DoFi and mitigate the effects of presbyopia would benefit if they were done on a case-by-case basis. Furthermore, this study might offer a new method to measure the suitability of each patient to this kind of corrections to avoid post-treatment disappointment.

Top left: Adaptive Optics system used in the study (CiViUM lab, The University of Murcia). Top right: results of the impact of higher-order aberrations on depth-of-field extent. Bottom: ESR#5 presenting the study at ARVO annual meeting (Seattle, WA, USA).