Accommodative stimulus-response curves to low-pass filtered natural images

To assess how the monocular steady-state accommodative stimulus-response curve is modified when viewing low-pass filtered natural images.

Eighteen adult subjects participated in the study. The accommodative stimulus-response curve was objectively assessed by means of a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor. Measurements were taken at different accommodative demands. Target images were low-pass filtered versions of a natural image that were obtained applying different digital spatial filters that limited the spatial frequency content of the natural image. Cutoff spatial frequencies were set at 30, 21, and 15 cycles per degree (cy/deg).

Mean data obtained for each target were fitted to linear models. For the low-pass filtered natural image with a cutoff spatial frequency at 30 cy/deg, the slope for the averaged stimulus-response curve was 0.614, while the slopes obtained for the other two low-pass filtered images corresponding to cutoff frequencies at 21 and 15 cy/deg were 0.613 and 0.619, respectively (p < 0.01). The determination coefficient was R² ≥ 0.988 for all targets. An ANCOVA analysis revealed that these slopes were not significantly different from each other (p = 0.82). Additionally, accommodative error indexes were obtained to measure both the discrepancy between the regression lines and the ideal lines and the degree of correlation between the stimulus and the response.

Our study reveals that the low and middle spatial frequencies (< 15 cy/deg) are the most important to guide to the needed levels the accommodative response to natural images.