[Objective determination of the consensual accommodation (author's transl)]

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Neuroscience
• Physiology

Context:

• Accommodation is the eye's ability to adjust focus.
• Consensual accommodation involves both eyes responding simultaneously.
• The ciliary muscle plays a crucial role in focusing.

Purpose:

• To investigate the relationship between direct and consensual accommodation.
• To determine the influence of ciliary muscle function on accommodation.
• To explore the neural pathways involved in accommodation.

Summary:

• A modified coincidence refractometer measured direct and consensual accommodation.
• Normal vision showed a strong correlation between direct and consensual accommodation.
• Impairing ciliary muscle function with Homatropine disrupted consensual accommodation, affecting ipsilateral and contralateral responses.

Impact:

• Findings suggest the ciliary muscle in the fixating eye influences accommodation reflex regulation.
• A single efferent neuron may control accommodation impulses to both eyes.
• Quantitative assessment of accommodation can diagnose afferent and efferent pathway disturbances.