High order wave aberration of eyes.

This paper is concerned with the means and distribution of the wavefront variances and their root mean squares (RMS) of normal eyes, as measured by various techniques and computed for various pupil sizes. Using data from a subjective crossed cylinder aberroscope [Howland and Howland J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 67(1977)1508] it was found that the logarithms of the wavefront variances are approximately normally distributed. A comparison of data from this subjective study with that of six other studies using a variety of techniques of wavefront measurement showed that the relationship between RMS wavefront deviations of high order aberrations (third order polynomial terms and above) obeyed the relationship: log (RMS) (microm) = -1.918 +/- 0.048 SE + 3.023 +/- 0.111 x log (pupil radius) (mm), with R2 = 0.971.