Poster Session: Chromatic blur detection differences as a function of refractive error.

Abstract

Visual information modulates eye growth. The retina integrates optical signals of opposite sign, recognizes it and generates molecular signals specific to its sign, stimulating or inhibiting eye growth, via scleral remodeling. However, the optical cues that modulate eye growth (i.e., the visual input from the outside world) are rarely well-defined homogenous patches of light or dark but typically a mixture of large- and small-scale structures that interact with the dynamics of visual function (i.e., accommodation, neural adaptation, among others). Recently, the perception of contrast has emerged as a possible cue for emmetropization because optical defocus leads to a proportional degradation of contrast at the edges of the images, whereby the retina would use the contrast of the edges to determine the focal plane, and color contrast to identify the sign of defocus. Moreover, detection mechanisms of the visual system are modified after prolonged exposure to a degraded stimulus, with the role of native aberrations being increased in early-onset myopes, suggesting potential differences in neural sensitivity to blur, and therefore in defocus detection (of different signs and wavelengths). The aim of this study is to investigate the perception of combined optical cues using an Adaptive Optics visual simulator to shed light on the underlying stimulus detection mechanisms guiding eye growth.