The effect of age on the nerve fiber population of the human optic nerve.

Nerve fiber counts of 16 normal human optic nerves from subjects aged 3.5 to 82 years showed a significant effect of age (P = .0207). The delay between death or enucleation and fixation also significantly affected the result (P = .0078). The mean (+/- S.E.M.) count for the 16 nerves was 1,244,005 +/- 20,033 fibers, giving a 99% confidence level between 1,192,400 and 1,295,610 fibers.