Afocal magnification does not influence chick eye development

In defocus-induced ametropia experiments, retinal blur circles are a likely source of information as to the magnitude but not the sign of the defocus. However, magnification (and minification) produced by the lenses may be a cue. In this study, 1-day-old broiler chicks (N = 13) were treated monocularly for 7 days with special goggles containing approximately afocal iseikonic lenses which were designed to produce 10% retinal image magnification. This is a little less than the magnification produced by +10 D defocusing lenses used to produce about 10 D of hyperopia in earlier work. Intraocular dimensions of both eyes were measured by A-scan ultrasonography on the first and last day. Refractive states of both eyes were measured daily with a retinoscope and trial lenses. After the birds were sacrificed, the eyes were enucleated, weighed, and measured with calipers. Before the treatment there was no difference in the refractive state or dimensions of the right and left eyes. After 1 week of goggle wear there was still no significant difference between the eyes in spite of the magnification produced by the goggles. These data suggest that factors other than magnification are responsible for the ability of the eye to respond to the sign of defocus.