The effect of simulated lens yellowing and opacification on blue-on-yellow acuity and contrast sensitivity

Short-wavelength-sensitive (SWS) resolution acuity has been reported to be limited by the density of the responding ganglion cells for people without appreciable age-related lenticular change. This study measured the robustness of SWS-cone acuity and contrast sensitivity (CS) to simulated lens yellowing and opacification. Resolution acuity at 8 deg eccentricity proved robust to significant amounts of yellowing and remained lower than detection acuity, indicating that the resolution continued to be limited by ganglion cell density. Both the detection and resolution CS functions were affected by simulated lens yellowing, except for resolution close to the CS cut-off. For simulated opacification, only dense opacity significantly affected performance. SWS resolution acuity and CS close to the resolution limit are resistant to moderate simulated age-related lens changes and continue to be mediated by the density of the responding ganglion cells, indicating important clinical potential to measure SWS neural losses of vision in older subjects.