The role of short-wavelength sensitive cones and chromatic aberration in the response to stationary and step accommodation stimuli

The aim of the experiment was to test for a contribution from short-wavelength sensitive cones to the static and step accommodation response, to compare responses from short and long- plus middle-wavelength sensitive cone types, and to examine the contribution of a signal from longitudinal chromatic aberration to the accommodation response. Accommodation was monitored continuously (eight subjects) to a square-wave grating (2.2 c/d; 0.57 contrast) in a Badal optometer. The grating stepped (1.00 D) randomly towards or away from the eye from a starting position of 2.00 D. Five illumination conditions were used to isolate cone responses, and combine them with or without longitudinal chromatic aberration. Accuracy of the response before the step, step amplitude, latencies and time-constants, were compared between conditions using single factor ANOVA and t-test comparisons. Both S-cones and LM-cones mediated static and step accommodation responses. S-cone contrast drives "static" accommodation for near, but the S-cone response is too slow to influence step dynamics when LM-cones participate. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.