We report root-mean-square (RMS) wavefront error (WFE) for individual aberrations and cumulative high-order (HO) RMS WFE for the normal human eye as a function of age by decade and pupil diameter in 1 mm steps from 3 to 7 mm and determine the relationship among HO RMS WFE, mean age for each decade of life, and luminance for physiologic pupil diameters.

Subjects included 146 healthy individuals from 20 to 80 years of age. Ocular aberration was measured on the preferred eye of each subject (for a total of 146 eyes through dilated pupils; computed for 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 mm pupils; and described with a tenth-radial-order normalized Zernike expansion.

We found that HO RMS WFE increases faster with increasing pupil diameter for any given age and pupil diameter than it does with increasing age alone. A planar function accounts for 99% of the variance in the 3-D space defined by mean log HO RMS WFE, mean age for each decade of life, and pupil diameter.

Fig. 7. (Color online) Estimated relationship among HO RMS WFE (third-sixth radial orders) age, and luminance through the physiologic pupil.

When physiologic pupil diameters are used to estimate HO RMS WFE as a function of luminance and age, at low luminance (9 cd/m²) HO RMS WFE decreases with increasing age. This normative data set details (1) the 3-D relationship between HO RMS WFE and age for fixed pupil diameters and (2) the 3-D relationship among HO RMS WFE, age, and luminance for physiologic pupil diameters.

J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis. 2007 Mar;24(3):578-87
Accepted for publication: 6 September 2006

Raymond A. Applegate, William J. Donnelly III, Jason D. Marsack, and Darren E. Koenig
Visual Optics Institute, College of Optometry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204, USA
Konrad Pesudovs
Department of Ophthalmology, National Health and Medical Research Council, Centre for Clinical Eye Research, Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, 5042, Australia