Impact of temporal fluctuations in optical defocus on visual acuity: Empirical results and modeling outcomes

Optical defocus in human eyes is seldom steady during naturalistic steady-state viewing. It fluctuates by 0.3 to 0.5 diopters (D) from accommodative microfluctuations and by 1.5 to 2.5 D in dysfunctions such as spasm of near reflex, both with ≤2 Hz low-pass frequency spectra. This study observed losses in monocular visual acuity of cyclopleged adults who encountered varying amplitude (0.25-2.0 D) and temporal frequency (0.25-2.0 Hz) combinations of sinusoidal defoci induced using an electrically tunable lens. Visual acuity, recorded for 300-ms flashes of Sloan optotype presentation using the method of constant stimuli, deteriorated with defocus amplitude at a rate steeper for lower than higher temporal frequencies. A template matching model of acuity, incorporating optical and neural low-pass filters, neural noise, and a cross-correlated decision operator, showed the best match with empirical data when acuity was governed by the minimum defocus available during optotype display. This criterion minimized acuity loss for higher temporal frequencies due to the increased probability of zero-defocus encounters within the presentation duration. Other decision criteria such as defocus averaging across the entire or parts of the presentation duration yielded less satisfactory results. These results imply that vision loss in humans encountering broadband time-varying defocus is dictated by the dominant low frequencies, with higher frequencies largely compensated using the least defocus decision strategy.