Correlation between optical and psychophysical parameters as a function of defocus
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 2, 2026
Binocular Dynamic Visual Acuity in Eyeglass-Corrected Myopic Patients
Published on: March 29, 2022
Eloy A Villegas1, Concepción González, Bernard Bourdoncle
1Laboratorio de Optica, Departamento de Física, Universidad de Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, Murcia, Spain. villegas@um.es
Purpose:
To evaluate how ocular optical image quality and psychophysical estimates of visual performance compare to each other as a function of defocus.
Methods:
We measured the optical modulation transfer function using a double-pass apparatus and psychophysical estimates of visual performance: contrast sensitivity function (CSF) and visual acuity. Both sets of data were obtained under the same optical conditions.
Results:
We measured optical and psychophysical parameters as a function of defocus. We studied the correlation between optical parameters (Strehl ratio and the logarithm of the volume in the double-pass image [log_Vol D-P]) and psychophysical parameters (the area under the fitted CSF represented in a logarithmic scale with the spatial frequency in linear scale [Area CSF-log_lin] and visual acuity) for different values of defocus.
Conclusions:
Strehl ratio is well correlated with the psychophysical estimates of the visual performance for moderate amount of defocus (within 1 D), whereas the other parameter (log_Vol D-P) is well correlated for larger ranges of defocus (within 2 D) and for different pupil diameters. These results suggest that optical measurements could be used for clinical testing of ophthalmic optics.
