Differences in the accommodation stimulus response curves of adult myopes and emmetropes: a summary and update

Abstract PurposeTo provide a summary of the classic paper “Differences in the accommodation stimulus response curves of adult myopes and emmetropes” published in Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics in 1998 and to provide an update on the topic of accommodation errors in myopia. SummaryThe accommodation responses of 33 participants (10 emmetropes, 11 early onset myopes and 12 late onset myopes) aged 18–31 years were measured using the Canon Autoref R‐1 free space autorefractor using three methods to vary the accommodation demand: decreasing distance (4 m to 0.25 cm), negative lenses (0 to −4 D at 4 m) and positive lenses (+4 to 0 D at 0.25 m). We observed that the greatest accommodation errors occurred for the negative lens method whereas minimal errors were observed using positive lenses. Adult progressing myopes had greater lags of accommodation than stable myopes at higher demands induced by negative lenses. Progressing myopes had shallower response gradients than the emmetropes and stable myopes; however the reduced gradient was much less than that observed in children using similar methods. Recent FindingsThis paper has been often cited as evidence that accommodation responses at near may be primarily reduced in adults with progressing myopia and not in stable myopes and/or that challenging accommodation stimuli (negative lenses with monocular viewing) are required to generate larger accommodation errors. As an analogy, animals reared with hyperopic errors ...
Source: Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics - Category: Opthalmology Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research