Neural compensation for the best aberration correction.

We use adaptive optics (AO) to study whether neural adaptation influences the amount of higher order aberration correction that produces the best subjective image quality. Three subjects performed two tasks, method of adjustment and matching, while viewing a monochromatic stimulus through the Rochester AO system. In both tasks, after correcting the subject's lower order aberrations with trial lenses, AO was used to modify the subject's higher order aberrations, multiplying it by a scaling factor between 1 and -1. In the adjustment task, subjects adjusted the scaling factor to find the best subjective image quality. In the matching task, subjects viewed the same stimulus sequentially blurred either by defocus or a scaled version of their own wave aberration, adjusting the defocus to match the blur corresponding to different scaled versions of their aberrations. Results from both tasks are consistent with a small amount of neural adaptation because the best subjective image quality occurred when some higher order aberrations were left uncorrected for all three subjects. Neural adaptation slightly modifies the best aberration correction, although this effect averaged only approximately 12% of complete adaptation. These results may have practical consequences for customized vision correction.