Dear students,
Thank you for submitting your assignments via Ilias. The vast majority clearly made an effort to
frame a good answer. Please find below a graph that illustrates the percentage of students that
responded to each question.
On the following pages, I put together a selection of outstanding answers for you to monitor your
learning progress. In some cases, I added some clarifying text.
Please let me know, if you have any doubts or feedback.
Best regards,
Christina Schwarz
Exercise 1: What types of aberrations do our eyes suffer from? How do they manifest? Which
aberrations are similar for all people? Which aberrations are not?
Answer 1
Our eyes suffer from monochromatic and chromatic aberrations. Monochromatic aberrations are caused by
the geometry of the lens and do not depend on the different frequencies of light. The monochromatic
aberrations are divided in low-order and higher-order aberrations:
Low-order aberrations
- Astigmatism: occurs when the two perpendicular light rays focus differently on the retina, and then two
images are formed and overlapped, leading to a “blurred” (elongated) vision. This aberration is caused by
imperfection in the curvature in the eye (“egg-shaped” of the cornea or the lens).
- Myopia: occurs when the images are formed in front of the retina, because the eye has a longer length than
normal. In this case, there is blurry vision of distant objects.
- Hyperopia: occurs when the images are formed in the back of the retina, because the eye has shorter
length than normal. In this case, there is blurry vision of near objects.
- Presbyopia: occurs when the images are formed in the back of the retina, however, unlike hyperopia, it is
not caused by the eye length. This aberration is caused by the loss of elasticity of the eye lenses, due to the
ageing process. The mechanism of changing the lens curvature to enhance the focusing power of the eye is
affected. The image of near objects is blurred.
Higher-order aberrations
- Spherical aberration: occurs when the light rays that pass peripherally through the cornea and lens are
focused at a different place than the rays that arrive at the centre of the lens, causing blurred vision. This
aberration can be worsened by abnormalities of the corneal surfaces.
Chromatic aberrations are caused by the different focuses depending on the wavelength of light (e.g. high
wavelength lights, such as red, bend less than small wavelength lights, such as blue). The chromatic
aberrations are divided in longitudinal and transverse aberrations:
- Longitudinal chromatic aberration: occurs when there are different focus points of the different
wavelengths on the horizontal optical axis. The result of this aberration is similar to a prism.
- Transverse chromatic aberration: occurs when there are different focus points of the different wavelengths
on the vertical plane. In this case, there are differences in the image size in relation to each colour.
Chromatic aberrations are similar for all people, since these aberrations are dependent on the lens natural
format and on physical properties of the light. On the other hand, the low-order aberrations are caused by
individual abnormalities of the eye curvature or eye size (astigmatism, hyperopia, and myopia, respectively).
That means that these aberrations do not affect all people, but are prone to people with a genetic or
physiological background.
Answer 2
Aberrations are small imperfections in the eye leading to small optical irregularities and they are defined by
the difference between the optimal and actual wavefront reaching the human retina. It is possible to
measure and classify the different types of aberrations affecting the eye using Zernike polynomials. This
allows for the differentiation between high- and low-order aberrations. The difference between these two
types of aberration are that low-order aberrations only affect a subset of the population, whereas higher
order aberrations are common in all people (although people may be affected by these to different extents).
The low-order aberrations can be divided into myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. Myopia is characterized
by the point of focus lying in front of the retina, meaning that a person suffers from a negative refractive
power, thereby close-by objects are clearly discernible, while farther away objects appear blurry (i.e.,
nearsightedness). A person may suffer from myopia either because their eyeballs are too large, or the cornea
or the lens is curved too steeply. Myopia can be corrected using concave-shaped glasses or contact lenses.
Hyperopia, in contrast, is characterized by the point of focus lying behind the retina, which corresponds to a
positive refractive power. The positive refractive power contributes to the person suffering from
farsightedness, meaning that they can discern farther away objects well but see close-by objects blurry.
Hyperopia develops due to the eyeballs being too small, or the cornea or lens not being curved enough.
Hyperopia can be corrected using convex-shaped glasses or contact lenses. Astigmatism is an imperfection in
the eye’s curvature (i.e., egg-shaped [rather than round] curves in the cornea and/or lens) contributing to
blurred vision in the distance and close-by. This imperfect curvature results in the fact that light is refracted
differently for distinct directions. Thus, light rays in one direction have a different focal point on the retina
compared to light rays in a different direction. The direction in which an image is perceived to be elongated
by the person can be measured in degrees (ranging from 0 – 180). Astigmatism can be corrected by using
(contact) lenses that have a different refractive power for light rays from different directions.
Aberrations affecting all the population are chromatic aberrations. Chromatic aberrations can be classified as
longitudinal- or transverse chromatic aberrations. Longitudinal chromatic aberrations are the result from
differences in optical power across wavelengths. For example, the focal point of red light lies behind the focal
point of blue light, since red light has a more positive refractive power compared to blue light. Transverse
chromatic aberration, in contrast, is the variation of the image size with wavelength on the retina. Transverse
chromatic aberration mainly happens whenever different wavelengths enter the eye in a transverse manner
(i.e., whenever the pupil is decentered). The human eye takes chromatic aberrations into account in its
anatomy, as most blue-light sensitive S-cones are in the periphery, where blue wavelengths have their focal
point.
Answer 3
Some people suffer from a mismatch between the refractive power of their eye and the eye length. This
leads to a blurry vision of objects. If the refractive power of the eye is too strong/ the eye too long the person
is shortsighted. Objects that are far away occur blurry as the rays do not converge into a focal point on the
retina but in front of the retina. This aberration is quite common with a prevalence of around 43% in the
European population. It can be corrected with a lens of negative power. If the refractive power is too weak or
the eye too short, the light rays converge only behind the retina. The person is farsighted and near objects
occur blurry. The prevalence in the population is around 15%. Correction is achieved with a positive power
lens.
Apart from that it is possible to have astigmatism (~60% of adult population) which means, that the image
appears to be elongated in a special direction because the refractive powers along the different axis are
differently strong.
A longitudinal chromatic aberration describes the difference in refractive power of the optical system
depending on the wavelength. This is a normal physical phenomenon because light of shorter wavelength
(blue) gets refracted more than light of longer wavelengths (red). In a normal eye however, this effect is
compensated by the distribution of cones in the retina and the luminance properties of the incoming light. If
the compensation does not work, the edges of objects seem to blur in different colors.
Also, a transversal chromatic aberration is possible. There the image size varies with the wavelength of the
incoming light. The images of different color appears shifted and blurry.
Besides those aberrations that can occur in individual eyes there is monochromatic aberration that occurs in
every physiological eye. In a biological system, the inhomogeneity of the biological tissue, and for example
thermal influences can change the refractive properties throughout the system. The light rays do not enter
the eyes perfectly parallel and are not refracted homogeneous and mathematically perfect. This leads to a
blur of the point stimulus on the retina that is independent of the wavelength of the light/ occurs also with
monochromatic light. The wavefront aberrations can have various patterns and can be measured with the
Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. They can be described by Zernike polynomials. The strength of this
aberration varies and averages out across the population. Only spherical monochromatic aberrations occur
more than expected by the chance level. Moreover, spherical aberration of light occurs in all biological eyes.
This means, that light rays that enter the eye through the periphery of the lens get refracted more than light
that directly passes through the center of the lens. This effect is caused by the curvature of the crystalline
lens and can be corrected by a decrease in pupil size. That is why the effect is normally not observable in a
healthy human eye. Besides those common aberrations the image quality can also be varied by diffraction
and blur (in dependence of pupil size), stiffness or blur of the aging crystalline lens or straylight.
Exercise 2: What is the optical resolution limit of the standard, emmetropic human eye? How does
this compare to the size of our photoreceptors? How does the resolution limit change for an eye
that is myopic by 6 D, assuming that 3 D correspond to an axial length difference of 1 mm?
Answer 1
If we consider light of wavelength of 500𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 (500 · 10−9 𝑚𝑚) and a pupil diameter of 2𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 (2 · 10−3 𝑚𝑚), we
get:
1.22 · 𝜆𝜆 1.22 · 500 · 10−9
𝜃𝜃 = = = 3.05 · 10−4 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 = 0.017𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 = 62.91𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠
𝐷𝐷 2 · 10−3
≈ 1𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎
This equals 4.93µm.
One degree in the visual field maps on the retina to 16.7mm* tan(1o)=290 μm. Given that the foveal
photoreceptors are 2.5 μm thick, each foveal photoreceptor approximately is sampling 0.0086o in the visual
field.
Answer 2
The optical resolution limit is the smallest distance between two points of light which can be distinguished.
The human eye performs close to a diffraction limited system, meaning that it’s resolution limit is close to the
distance at which two airy discs will inherently start to interfere with each other, due to the natural
diffraction of light waves. Therefore, we can use Rayleigh’s criterion
to estimate the resolution limit: θ = 1.22 λ/D
1.22 is a constant approximating the first zero crossing of the first Bessel function (which models the
diffraction of a point source of light), λ is the frequency of the light and D is the diameter of the pupil.
If we want to know the size of this distance projected onto the retina, we can use the formula
tan(θ) = x / f
where x is the radius of the retinal image and f is the posterior nodal distance (PND) within the eye.
Because these distances will be very small, we can use the small angle approximation
and state that θ ≈ tan(θ), and thus,θ = 1.22λ/D≈x/f
In standard daylight conditions, the average frequency of visible light is 0.55μm and the usual diameter of the
pupil is about 3-4 mm (we’ll say 3.5mm). In a healthy, emmetropic eye, the PND is approximately 16.7mm.
Therefore, x = 1.22 λ/ D *f=1.22*0.55μm*16.7mm/3.5mm= 3.20μm
This is the smallest distance between two point sources that can be resolved.
This number is slightly larger than the size of two cones, which are about 2.5μm in diameter each. This makes
sense, as were the points any closer, they would be stimulating the same photoreceptors within the retina,
and thus would be impossible to distinguish.
For a 6D myopic eye, the influence of the defocus aberration is outweighing the Rayleigh criterion. Here the
blur disk can be determined by
d=0.057pD [1]
(d = diameter in degrees visual angle, p = pupil size in mm, D = defocus in diopters)
Using p=2mm, D=6diopter we obtain:
d=0.057pD = 0.057 * 2 * 6 = 0,684 °, this equals 41 arcmins.
See publication [1]: Strasburger, Hans, Michael Bach, and Sven P. Heinrich. "Blur unblurred—a mini tutorial."
i-Perception 9.2 (2018): 2041669518765850.
Exercise 3: How does Electroretinography work? Which variations do you know and what can you
diagnose with the measurement?
Answer 1
Electrical / Physiological Basis [1]
Electroretinography (ERG) relies on the principle that light stimuli can cause electrical
potential changes in the eye. Remarkably, there are currents beyond the retina (where they
originate) which can be measured in the sclera and cornea. The response to light stimuli can
be divided into three main components: The a-wave originates in the photoreceptor layer, the
b-wave (the major component) in retinal cells that are postsynaptic to photoreceptors and
the c-wave in the pigment epithelium. The electrical activity depends on retinal function,
resistances across the retinal extracellular matrix, state of adaptation (since rods and cones produce
different responses) and many other factors.
Application / Diagnostics
In humans, electrodes can be placed non-invasively on the canthi to monitor retinal activity
and diagnose retinal disfunctions such as diabetic retinopathy [2].
Variations
In the full-field ERG, subjects are presented with various light flashes that are designed to
investigate rod and cone and bipolar cell function. In the pattern ERG, the stimulus has a
pattern (e.g. checkerboard or grated) to analyse retinal ganglion cell activity. The multifocal
ERG helps assess local effects in the field of view by presenting stimuli on various locations.
References
[1] H. Kolb, E. Fernandez, and R. Nelson, “Webvision: The organization of the retina and
visual system [internet],” 1995.
[2] A. Y. Maa, W. J. Feuer, C. Q. Davis, et al., “A novel device for accurate and efficient
testing for vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy,” Journal of Diabetes and its
Complications, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 524–532, 2016.
Answer 2
The Electroretinography (ERG) is a non-invasive diagnostic test that measures the electrical activity (i.e. voltage)
of the retina in response to a light stimulus by placing an electrode on the cornea. Responses of various cell
types in the retina, including the photoreceptors (rods and cones), inner retinal cells (bipolar and amacrine
cells) and the ganglion cells can be measured. With this measurement one can diagnose inherited and acquired
retinal disorders, monitor disease progression and evaluate treatment efficacy or retinal toxicity of drugs. There
are three different types of ERG: the full-field (ffERG), pattern and multifocal (mfERG) ERG.
Doing ffERG requires a full-field light stimulus which is directed on the eye of the subject. Following, the
averaged response of the retinal cells to the stimulus is measured (the ERG). One can detect an a-wave which
is the initial negative deflection that corresponds to the early hyperpolarization of the rod and cone
photoreceptors. Also, one can measure the b-wave. It is the positive deflection following the a-wave that
originates from the depolarization of inner retinal and bipolar cells. There are two other responses that can be
measured: the oscillatory potentials (OPs) and the photopic negative response (PhNR). The OPs are rhythmic
wavelets of high frequency which can be observed on the rising slope of the b-wave. The PhNR is the light-
adapted, negative deflection that follows the b-wave. The PhNR represents the functional status of the inner
layers of the retina. It originates in the RGC layer from the electrical activity of RGCs themselves and, given its
slow timing, includes amacrine and glial cells mediation and contribution.
In the pattern ERG procedure a patterned stimulus is used (e.g. a checkerboard or a grating) which is inverted
within the time course. Thus, the overall luminance is constant. Like this, one can measure the activity of
macular retinal ganglion cells (RGC). One can observe the characteristic potentials N35, P50 and N95 which
reflect different amplitudes over time.
The multifocal ERG is a measurement technique which allows for the assessment of many local ERG responses
within the central 30 degrees and therefore, providing spatial information. The mfERG responses are recorded
under light-adapted conditions from the cone-pathway. Using this technique one can detect local loss in
function in the retina (eg. macular degeneration; decreased contribution from the center and increased
contribution from the periphery.)
Answer 3
The Electroretinography (ERG) is a non-invasive test that measures the electrical activity of the retina in
response to light stimuli. Commonly, a fiber electrode is placed in contact with the cornea and an additional
reference electrode is placed at a more distant side like the forehead. The electrode detects the total electrical
activity generated by the retinal neurons.
The following variations of ERG exists:
Full-field ERG:
Full-field ERG measures the mass response of the retinal neurons. It can be used to detect widespread retinal
dysfunction, that could be caused by rod/cone dystrophies, cancer associated retinopathy or toxic associated
retinopathy. It’s possible to focus on the rod-pathway by measuring responses of the dark-adapted eye, or the
cone-pathway from the light adapted eye. Additionally, stimuli that flicker rapidly (e.g. with a frequency of 31Hz)
can be used for assessing the cone pathways, as rod receptors can’t follow rapid flicker.
Multifocal ERG:
The multifocal ERG assesses many local ERG responses within the central 30 degrees. To achieve this a scaled
hexagonal pattern is shown to the subject and each hexagon has a 50% change of being illuminated at a given
time. This is done multiple times while different hexagons are illuminated. Therefore, it’s possible to recover
the electrical response for each individual hexagon from the total electrical responses.
The responses are recorded under light-adapted conditions from the cone-pathway. Multifocal ERG is used for
detecting localized abnormalities in the macula (center of the retina with most accurate vision).
Pattern ERG:
The pattern ERG uses a contrast reversing pattern (e.g. a checkerboard, grating) to assess the activity of
macular retinal ganglion cells. While the luminance of the pattern stays the same, the contrast of the regions
is reversed (white to black and black to white) with a certain frequency (e.g. 4 Hertz). Normal individuals show
a certain trace after each contrast reversal. This trace differs when the retinal ganglion cells are affected (N95
component) or if the macular cones don’t work properly (N95 or P50 component).
The standard, transient response separates the pERG
into wave components, including a negative wave at
about 35 msec (N35) followed by a positive wave at
approximately 50 msec (P50) and a large, negative wave
at around 95 msec (N95).
