Optical and retinal changes influenced by different lighting conditions

Abstract

Retinal morphology, specifically in its curvature, and ocular aberrations change when the eye adapts to different lighting conditions, including photopic, scotopic, mesopic, blue light, and red light. Sixty healthy young subjects with refractive error less than ±4.00 D of sphere and 3.00 D of cylinder, not suffering from accommodative problems, ocular or systemic pathology, and not having used electronic devices half an hour before or having taken substances that alter the retina during the 2 h prior to the study were included. The subjects adapted to five lighting conditions, each for 5 min, in a controlled environment. Ocular aberrometry and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) were taken to capture images of the central and peripheral retina before (baseline measurements) and after adaptation to each lighting condition. The OCT images were exported and processed to analyze retinal curvature, obtaining parameters such as eccentricity, asphericity and shape factor. The results showed that the shape of the retina was hyperbolic prolate, becoming flatter in scotopic and blue light conditions, and more curved in mesopic conditions. Retinal curvature was closest to baseline under red light and photopic conditions. Aberrometric differences, particularly in the C(2,0) polynomial for defocus, showed higher values in mesopic, baseline, and scotopic conditions, and lower values in photopic, blue light, and red light. Significant differences were also observed in spherical aberrations C(4,0) and C(6,0), vertical coma C(3,-1), and trefoil C(3,-3). The spherical equivalent indicated more myopic values in mesopic, baseline, and scotopic conditions, and more hyperopic values in blue, photopic, and red light, suggesting a link between myopia and lower luminosity. This study concludes that illumination affects retinal curvature and ocular refraction, influencing myopia.