Contrast adaptation induced by defocus – A possible error signal for emmetropization?

PurposeTo describe some features of contrast adaptation as induced by imposed positive or negative defocus. To study its time course and selectivity for the sign of the imposed defocus.MethodsContrast adaptation, CA (here referred to as any change in supra-threshold contrast sensitivity) was induced by presenting a movie to the subjects on a computer screen at 1 m distance for 10 min, while the right eye was defocused by a trial lens (+4D (n = 25); −4D (n = 10); −2D (n = 11 subjects). The PowerRefractor was used to track accommodation binocularly. Contrast sensitivity at threshold was measured by a method of adjustment with a Gabor patch of 1 deg angular subtense, filled with 3.22 cyc/deg sine wave grating presented on a computer screen at 1 m distance on gray background (33 cd/m2). Supra-threshold contrast sensitivity was quantified by an interocular contrast matching task, in which the subject had to match the contrast of the sine wave grating seen with the right eye with the contrast of a grating with fixed contrast of 0.1.Results(1) Contrast sensitivity thresholds were not lowered by previous viewing of defocused movies. (2) By wearing positive lenses, the supra-threshold contrast sensitivity in the right eye was raised by about 30% and remained elevated for at least 2 min until baseline was reached after about 5 min. (3) CA was induced only by positive, but not by negative lenses, even after the distance of the computer screen was taken into account (1 m, equivalent to +1D). In five subjects, binocular accommodation was tracked over the full adaptation period. Accommodation appeared to focus the eye not wearing a lens, but short transient switches in focus to the lens wearing eye could not be entirely excluded.ConclusionsTransient contrast adaptation was found at 3.22 cyc/deg when positive lenses were worn but not with negative lenses. This asymmetry is intriguing. While it may represent an epiphenomenon of physiological optics, further experiments are necessary to determine whether it could also trace back to differences in CA with defocus of different sign.