The study of the effects of higher-order aberrations on human contrast sensitivity with white-light retinal aerial image modulation (AIM)

The impact of higher-order aberrations on contrast sensitivity function (CSF) is calculated using individual white-light retinal aerial image modulation (AIM). Wavefront aberrations of 26 eyes are measured with Hartmann–Shack sensor, and the CSFs in natural light are acquired through a range of 2–48 c/deg. The white-light AIM is computed as the ratio of modulation transfer function (MTF) in white-light to CSF. Through manipulating the higher-order aberrations, the affected CSF is predicted by employing the white-light AIM. We find that coma aberration mainly influences CSF at higher spatial frequency and spherical aberration affects CSF in the whole spatial frequency range non-selectively. Additionally, it is spherical aberration rather than coma that impacts the CSF more substantially. Furthermore, the maximum value of area under CSF (AUCSF) is obtained without full correction of higher-order aberration, which indicates that there is compensatory mechanism among aberrations.