Purpose Reduced retinal image contrast produced by accommodative lag is implicated with myopia development. Here, we measure accommodative error and retinal image quality from wavefront aberrations in myopes and emmetropes when they perform visually demanding and naturalistic tasks. Methods Wavefront aberrations were measured in 10 emmetropic and 11 myopic adults at three distances (100, 40, and 20 cm) while performing four tasks (monocular acuity, binocular acuity, reading, and movie watching). For the acuity tasks, measurements of wavefront error were obtained near the end point of the acuity experiment. Refractive state was defined as the target vergence that optimizes image quality using a visual contrast metric (VSMTF) computed from wavefront errors. Results Accommodation was most accurate (and image quality best) during binocular acuity whereas accommodation was least accurate (and image quality worst) while watching a movie. When viewing distance was reduced, accommodative lag increased and image quality (as quantified by VSMTF) declined for all tasks in both refractive groups. For any given viewing distance, computed image quality was consistently worse in myopes than in emmetropes, more so for the acuity than for reading/movie watching. Although myopes showed greater lags and worse image quality for the acuity experiments compared to emmetropes, acuity was not measurably worse in myopes compared to emmetropes. Conclusions Retinal image quality present when performing a visually demanding task (e.g., during clinical examination) is likely to be greater than for less demanding tasks (e.g., reading/movie watching). Although reductions in image quality lead to reductions in acuity, the image quality metric VSMTF is not necessarily an absolute indicator of visual performance because myopes achieved slightly better acuity than emmetropes despite showing greater lags and worse image quality. Reduced visual contrast in myopes compared to emmetropes is consistent with theories of myopia progression that point to image contrast as an inhibitory signal for ocular growth.

Near addition lenses are prescribed to pre-presbyopic individuals for treatment of binocular motor problems such as convergence excess and to control the progression of myopia. To date, no investigation has looked at the complete sequence of binocular motor responses during a period of near work with +2D lenses. This investigation evaluated changes to accommodation and vergence responses when young adults sustained fixation at 33 cm with +2D addition lenses. In addition, the effect of the accommodative vergence cross-link (AV/A) on the magnitude and the completeness of binocular adaptation to these lenses were evaluated. The results showed that +2D lenses initiate an increase in exophoria and convergence driven accommodation. The degree of the initial induced phoria was dependant upon the magnitude of the AV/A ratio. Vergence adaptation occurred after 3 min of near fixation and reduced the exophoria and convergence driven accommodation. The magnitude of vergence adaptation was dependant upon the size of the induced phoria and hence the AV/A ratio. The completeness of adaptation was seen to vary inversely with induced exophoria and thus the AV/A ratio.

Despite developmental maturation of interpupillary distance, refractive error, and AC/A, in a typical sample of young children the predominant dissociated position is one of exophoria.

The influence of phoria-type and myopia on changes to vergence and accommodation during prolonged near-task was examined in 53 children. Participants were classified into phoria and refractive categories based on near phoria and cycloplegic refraction respectively. Measures of near phoria, binocular (BA) and monocular accommodation (MA) were obtained before and during a 20 min task when children binocularly fixated a high-contrast target at 33 cm through best corrective lenses. Vergence adaptation and accommodative adaptation were quantified using changes to near phoria and tonic accommodation respectively. The direction and magnitude of vergence adaptation was modified by the phoria-type (p<0.001). Emmetropic exophores displayed convergent (less exo than baseline) adaptation while esophores showed divergent shifts (less eso than baseline) in phoria upon prolonged fixation. Myopic children also followed a similar pattern but showed greater divergent (or less convergent) shift (p<0.001) in vergence adaptation for all phoria categories compared to emmetropes. Phoria-type also influenced the pattern of BA vs. MA (p<0.001) such that exophores showed BA>MA while esophores showed MA>BA in both refractive groups. Accommodative adaptation was higher in myopes (p=0.010) but did not demonstrate a significant effect of phoria (p=0.4). The influence of phoria-type on vergence adaptation and the pattern of BA vs. MA relates primarily to the varying fusional vergence demands created by the direction of phoria. The greater divergent (or less convergent) shift in vergence adaptation seen in myopes (compared to emmetropes) could be attributed to their higher accommodative adaptation. Nevertheless, the adaptive patterns observed in myopic children do not appear to explain their high response AV/A ratios identified as a risk factor for myopia development.

This research tested the hypothesis that the successful treatment of convergence insufficiency (CI) with vision-training (VT) procedures, leads to an increased capacity of vergence adaptation (VAdapt) allowing a more rapid downward adjustment of the convergence accommodation cross-link. Nine subjects with CI were recruited from a clinical population, based upon reduced fusional vergence amplitudes, receded near point of convergence or symptomology. VAdapt and the resulting changes to convergence accommodation (CA) were measured at specific intervals over 15 min (pre-training). Separate clinical measures of the accommodative convergence cross link, horizontal fusion limits and near point of convergence were taken and a symptomology questionnaire completed. Subjects then participated in a VT program composed of 2.5h at home and 1h in-office weekly for 12-14 weeks. Clinical testing was done weekly. VAdapt and CA measures were retaken once clinical measures normalized for 2 weeks (mid-training) and then again when symptoms had cleared (post-training). VAdapt and CA responses as well as the clinical measures were taken on a control group showing normal clinical findings. Six subjects provided complete data sets. CI clinical findings reached normal levels between 4 and 7 weeks of training but symptoms, VAdapt, and CA output remained significantly different from the controls until 12-14 weeks. The hypothesis was retained. The reduced VAdapt and excessive CA found in CI were normalized through orthoptic treatment. This time course was underestimated by clinical findings but matched symptom amelioration.