This study compares image quality on the peripheral retina for far and near vision in schoolchildren. Biometric data and simultaneous foveal and peripheral (±25^◦ horizontal field) wavefront data for two levels of accommodation (0.22 D and 5 D) were collected from 31 children aged 6 to 11 years. Relative peripheral refraction (RPR) was found to be larger and more negative in the nasal visual field than in the temporal. This difference increased with accommodation. Furthermore, correlations between image quality and biometric parameters were investigated. The results highlight the importance of peripheral image quality during near work for myopia research. The data presented also form the baseline measurements of the Stockholm Myopia Study, which is a longitudinal pilot study on ocular growth and peripheral image quality in schoolchildren in Stockholm, Sweden.

The difference in peripheral retinal image quality between myopic and emmetropic eyes plays a major role in the design of the optical myopia interventions. Knowing this difference under accommodation can help to understand the limitations of the currently available optical solutions for myopia control. A newly developed dual-angle open-field sensor was used to assess the simultaneous foveal and peripheral (20 degrees nasal visual field) wavefront aberrations for five target vergences from -0.31 D to -4.0 D in six myopic and five emmetropic participants. With accommodation, the myopic eyes showed myopic shifts, and the emmetropic eyes showed no change in RPR. Furthermore, RPR calculated from simultaneous measurements showed lower infra-subject variability compared to the RPR calculated from peripheral measurements and target vergence. Other aberrations, as well as modulation transfer functions for natural pupils, were similar between the groups and the accommodation levels, foveally and peripherally. Results from viewing the same nearby target with and without spectacles by myopic participants suggest that the accommodative response is not the leading factor controlling the amplitude of accommodation microfluctuations.

Purpose: Many myopia control interventions are designed to induce myopic relative peripheral refraction. However, myopes tend to show asymmetries in their sensitivity to defocus, seeing better with hypermetropic rather than myopic defocus. This study aims to determine the influence of chromatic aberrations (CA) and higher-order monochromatic aberrations (HOA) in the peripheral asymmetry to defocus. Methods: Peripheral (20° nasal visual field) low-contrast (10%) resolution acuity of nine subjects (four myopes, four emmetropes, one hypermetrope) was evaluated under induced myopic and hypermetropic defocus between ±5 D, under four conditions: (a) Peripheral Best Sphere and Cylinder (BSC) correction in white light; (b) Peripheral BSC correction + CA elimination (green light); (c) Peripheral BSC correction + HOA correction in white light; and (d) Peripheral BSC correction + CA elimination + HOA correction. No cycloplegia was used, and all measurements were repeated three times. Results: The slopes of the peripheral acuity as a function of positive and negative defocus differed, especially when the natural HOA and CA were present. This asymmetry was quantified as the average of the absolute sum of positive and negative defocus slopes for all subjects (AVS). The AVS was 0.081 and 0.063 logMAR/D for white and green light respectively, when the ocular HOA were present. With adaptive optics correction for HOA, the asymmetry reduced to 0.021 logMAR/D for white and 0.031 logMAR/D for green light, mainly because the sensitivity to hypermetropic defocus increased when HOA were corrected. Conclusion: The asymmetry was only slightly affected by the elimination of the CA of the eye, whereas adaptive optics correction for HOA reduced the asymmetry. The HOA mainly affected the sensitivity to hypermetropic defocus.

Correction and manipulation of peripheral refractive errors are indispensable for people with central vision loss and in optical interventions for myopia control. This study investigates further enhancements of peripheral vision by compensating for monochromatic higher-order aberrations (with an adaptive optics system) and chromatic aberrations (with a narrowband green filter, 550 nm) in the 20 degrees nasal visual field. Both high-contrast detection cutoff and contrast sensitivity improved with optical correction. This improvement was most evident for gratings oriented perpendicular to the meridian due to asymmetric optical errors. When the natural monochromatic higher-order aberrations are large, resolution of 10% contrast oblique gratings can also be improved with correction of these errors. Though peripheral vision is mainly limited by refractive errors and neural factors, higher-order aberration correction beyond conventional refractive errors can still improve peripheral vision under certain circumstances.

Optimal temporal modulation of the stimulus can improve foveal contrast sensitivity. This study evaluates the characteristics of the peripheral spatiotemporal contrast sensitivity function in normal-sighted subjects. The purpose is to identify a temporal modulation that can potentially improve the remaining peripheral visual function in subjects with central visual field loss. High contrast resolution cut-off for grating stimuli with four temporal frequencies (0, 5, 10 and 15 Hz drift) was first evaluated in the 10° nasal visual field. Resolution contrast sensitivity for all temporal frequencies was then measured at four spatial frequencies between 0.5 cycles per degree (cpd) and the measured stationary cut-off. All measurements were performed with eccentric optical correction. Similar to foveal vision, peripheral contrast sensitivity is highest for a combination of low spatial frequency and 5–10 Hz drift. At higher spatial frequencies, there was a decrease in contrast sensitivity with 15 Hz drift. Despite this decrease, the resolution cut-off did not vary largely between the different temporal frequencies tested. Additional measurements of contrast sensitivity at 0.5 cpd and resolution cut-off for stationary (0 Hz) and 7.5 Hz stimuli performed at 10, 15, 20 and 25° in the nasal visual field also showed the same characteristics across eccentricities.

The purpose of this study was to measure the transverse chromatic aberration (TCA) across the visual field of the human eye objectively. TCA wasmeasured at horizontal and vertical field angles out to ±15° from foveal fixation in the right eye of four subjects. Interleaved retinal images were taken at wavelengths 543 nm and 842 nm in an adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope (AOSLO). To obtain true measures of the human eye's TCA, the contributions of the AOSLO system's TCA were measured using an on-axis aligned model eye and subtracted from the ocular data. The increase in TCA was found to be linear with eccentricity, with an average slope of 0.21 arcmin/degree of visual field angle (corresponding to 0.41 arcmin/degree for 430 nm to 770 nm). The absolute magnitude of ocular TCA varied between subjects, but was similar to the resolution acuity at 10° in the nasal visual field, encompassing three to four cones. Therefore, TCA can be visually significant. Furthermore, for high-resolution imaging applications, whether visualizing or stimulating cellular features in the retina, it is important to consider the lateral displacements between wavelengths and the variation in blur over the visual field.

A prolonged exposure to foveal defocus is well known to affect the visual functions in the fovea. However, the effects of peripheral blur adaptation on foveal vision, or vice versa, are still unclear. In this study, we therefore examined the changes in contrast sensitivity function from baseline, following blur adaptation to small as well as laterally extended stimuli in four subjects. The small field stimulus (7.5° visual field) was a 30. min video of forest scenery projected on a screen and the large field stimulus consisted of 7-tiles of the 7.5° stimulus stacked horizontally. Both stimuli were used for adaptation with optical blur (+2.00. D trial lens) as well as for clear control conditions. After small field blur adaptation foveal contrast sensitivity improved in the mid spatial frequency region. However, these changes neither spread to the periphery nor occurred for the large field blur adaptation. To conclude, visual performance after adaptation is dependent on the lateral extent of the adaptation stimulus.

Transverse chromatic aberration (TCA) is one of the largest optical errors affecting the peripheral image quality in the human eye. However, the effect of chromatic aberrations on our peripheral vision is largely unknown. This study investigates the effect of prism-induced horizontal TCA on vision, in the central as well as in the 20 degrees nasal visual field, for four subjects. Additionally, the magnitude of induced TCA (in minutes of arc) was measured subjectively in the fovea with a Vernier alignment method. During all measurements, the monochromatic optical errors of the eye were compensated for by adaptive optics. The average reduction in foveal grating resolution was about 0.032 +/- 0.005 logMAR/arcmin of TCA (mean +/- std). For peripheral grating detection, the reduction was 0.057 +/- 0.012 logMAR/arcmin. This means that the prismatic effect of highly dispersive spectacles may reduce the ability to detect objects in the peripheral visual field.