Effect of strategic accommodation training by wide stereoscopic movie presentation on myopic young people of visual acuity and asthenopia

The abnormal contraction of ciliary muscles due to the performance of a near visual task for several hours causes various vision problems such as asthenopia and visual loss. However, these problems can be resolved by activating the muscles by alternately repeating negative and positive accommodation. In this study, we have verified the effect of accommodation training that uses the strategy of presenting a stereoscopic movie to myopic youth and measuring the uncorrected distant visual acuity, spherical diopter (SPH), a flicker test and subjective index of asthenopia obtained using a visual analog scale (VAS). Stereoscopic movies are prepared by using the POWER 3D method (Olympus Visual Communications Co., Ltd.), which reduces the inconsistency between the experienced and the actual senses. Thirty-two myopic students aged 20 ± 1 years (16 males and 16 females) were chosen as the subjects. One group performed the accommodation training for 6 min, and the other group underwent a near visual task during the same period as the control group. We concluded that the accommodation training using a stereoscopic movie had temporarily improved visual acuity. This training seemed to lead to a decrease in asthenopia.

► The abnormal contraction of ciliary muscles causes various vision problems.
► These problems can be resolved by repeating negative and positive accommodation.
► We have verified the effects of accommodation by presenting a stereoscopic movie.
► Observers can receive the effect of improvement of visual acuity.
► Observers can receive the short-term effect of improvement of asthenopia.