Abstract

Animal studies on the etiology of myopia demonstrate that pattern deprivation can induce axial myopia. Dioptric blur induced by ophthalmic lenses can also alter the axial growth of the eye, with the growth rate increasing or slowing to counteract the blur induced by the lenses. In this case, negative lenses induce axial myopia but this myopia can readily be reversed to emmetropia by removing the lenses during the animal’s growth phase. Speculation exists that accommodative inaccuracies may induce blur in otherwise normal animals, and that this blur may in turn induce or exacerbate myopia progression.

© 1996 Optical Society of America