Effect of induced transverse chromatic aberration on peripheral vision

Transverse chromatic aberration (TCA) is one of the largest optical errors affecting the peripheral image quality in the human eye. However, the effect of chromatic aberrations on our peripheral vision is largely unknown. This study investigates the effect of prism-induced horizontal TCA on vision, in the central as well as in the 20° nasal visual field, for four subjects. Additionally, the magnitude of induced TCA (in minutes of arc) was measured subjectively in the fovea with a Vernier alignment method. During all measurements, the monochromatic optical errors of the eye were compensated for by adaptive optics. The average reduction in foveal grating resolution was about 0.032 ± 0.005  logMAR/arcmin of TCA (mean ± std). For peripheral grating detection, the reduction was 0.057 ± 0.012  logMAR/arcmin. This means that the prismatic effect of highly dispersive spectacles may reduce the ability to detect objects in the peripheral visual field.