Abstract

Given a point object, the best image of an optical system is usually not the image at the paraxial image plane due to aberration(Welford,1986). It might be expected that the eye would alter its accommodative state to the best image plane instead of the paraxial image plane. Spherical aberration contributes to the well known change in refractive state in night myopia(Koomen, et al, 1956). It is also known that subjective best focus is spatial frequency dependent(Green et al, 1965; Charman et al, 1976). However, the possible link between defocus of the eye and aberration has not been investigated. In processing the data of retina blur from subjective measurement of ocular aberrations, little attention has been paid to the defocus term. The method of measuring aberration in semi-Maxwellian view(Campbell, et al, 1990) provides a possible way to measure the defocus term while the subject focuses on the same target that is used to analyze the aberration. In the following study, we have manipulated the amount of spherical aberration in the eye using varifocal contact lenses and studied the resulting defocus.

© 1993 Optical Society of America