Abstract
Presentation Description :
How the eye detects the “go-grow-signal” is the single most important question in relation to understanding how our 21stvisual environment makes human eyes grow too long, i.e. become myopic. We now know the human eye does respond to defocus information from studies on the choroid and from optical intervention trials on myopia progression. We commonly refer to hyperopic and myopic defocus signals without explicitly asking, or understanding, how the retina decides the amount or direction of defocus. Mechanisms for determining defocus include contrast, spatial domain analysis, chromatic cues and off-axis astigmatism. In relation to myopia development, it is possible that the environment is providing dioptric cues that the eye is interpreting correctly. If it is, then optical and spatial interventions will prevent myopia development. Another, very plausible, possibility is that there are other non-dioptric differences in our constructed environment that, by impacting contrast, spatial frequency spectrum, or wavelength composition of the retinal image, are being misinterpreted by retinal cells to create a go-grow signal. This presentation with explore these questions from clinical, epidemiological and physiological optics perspectives.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.