Accommodation responses to stimuli in cone contrast space

The aim was to identify the cone contributions and pathways for reflex accommodation. Twelve illumination conditions were used to test specified locations in cone-contrast space. Accommodation was monitored continuously in a Badal optometer while the grating stimulus (2.2 c/d sine-wave; 0.27 modulation) moved sinusoidally (0.195 Hz) towards and away from the eye from a mean position of 2.00 D (±1.00 D). Mean accommodation level and dynamic gain and phase at 0.195 Hz were calculated. Mean accommodation level varied significantly when the long- and middle-wavelength cone contrast ratio was altered in both the luminance and chromatic quadrants of cone-contrast space. This experiment indicates that L- and M-cones contribute to luminance and chromatic signals that produce the accommodation response, most likely through magno-cellular and parvo-cellular pathways, respectively. The L:M cone weighting to the luminance pathway that mediates accommodation is 1.63:1. The amplitude and direction of the response depends on changes in chromatic contrast and luminance contrast signals that result from longitudinal chromatic aberration and defocus of the image.