Automatic compensation enhances the orientation perception in chronic astigmatism

Astigmatism is a prevalent optical problem in which two or more focal points blur the retinal image at a particular meridian. Although many features of astigmatic vision, including orientation perception, are impaired at the retinal image level, the visual system appears to partly restore perceptual...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2022-03, Vol.12 (1), p.3710-3710, Article 3710
Main Authors: Son, Sangkyu, Shim, Won Mok, Kang, Hyungoo, Lee, Joonyeol
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/1647/2198/1760
631/378/116/2394
631/378/2649/1723
631/378/3917
631/477/2811
631/553/2714
Adaptation, Physiological
Astigmatism
Compensation
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
multidisciplinary
Noise levels
Orientation behavior
Perception
Refractive Errors
Retina
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Vision
Visual system
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Summary:Astigmatism is a prevalent optical problem in which two or more focal points blur the retinal image at a particular meridian. Although many features of astigmatic vision, including orientation perception, are impaired at the retinal image level, the visual system appears to partly restore perceptual impairment after an extended period of astigmatism. However, the mechanism of orientation perception restoration in chronic astigmatism has not yet been clarified. We investigated the notable reduction of perceptual error in chronic astigmatism by comparing the orientation perception of a chronic astigmatism group with the perception of a normal-vision group, in which astigmatism was transiently induced. We found that orientation perception in the chronic group was more accurate than in the normal vision group. Interestingly, the reduction of perceptual errors was automatic; it remained even after the optical refractive errors were fully corrected, and the orientation perception was much more stable across different orientations, despite the uneven noise levels of the retinal images across meridians. We provide here a mechanistic explanation for how the compensation of astigmatic orientation perception occurred, using neural adaptation to the biased distribution of orientations.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-07788-y