Abstract

Ophthalmologic disorders have been characterized and classified almost exclusively on the basis of morphologic criteria. With the exceptions of visual acuity and visual field measures, measures of visual system functions have, until very recently, played only a minor role in clinical diagnosis, determining the natural course of disease and evaluating the efficacy of treatment. However, the past few years have witnessed a growth in the application of modern vision psychophysical theories and techniques to the study of clinical problems. For example, rod afterimage detection latency experiments and models have recently been applied to test hypotheses regarding early abnormalities in rod transduction kinetics in retinitis pigmentosa. The flash-on-flash paradigm and models for visual adaptation have recently been applied in determining the etiology of threshold elevations in age- related macular degeneration and other retinal disorders. The Stiles-Crawford effect and waveguide models have been used to evaluate receptor disorientation in exudative maculopathies. Hyperacuity techniques and models have been used to evaluate metamorphosia and degenerative changes in the retinal receptor mosaic.

© 1986 Optical Society of America