Longitudinal changes in retinal image quality in school-aged children

Designing more effective myopia control optical-based therapies requires a better understanding of the longitudinal changes in retinal image quality across the central and peripheral retina of children with different refractive profiles. To this end, we computed through-focus image quality descriptors from ocular aberrations measured across an eccentricity range of 60°, with data acquired biannually over three years in 62 children with initial functional emmetropia participating in the PICNIC study. Our results reveal distinct spatiotemporal optical signatures associated with myopia development: longer peripheral depth of focus and reduced image quality at the near-temporal and central retina even after foveal correction, and placement of the sharpest images behind the temporal retina.