The Ocular Accommodation Research Lab

Conducting investigations to measure the accommodative function using different techniques and instruments
Ocular Accommodation Research

Ocular accommodation can be regarded as the autofocus system of the human eye. It allows objects placed at different distances from the eye to be seen clearly and this ability inevitably deteriorates with age. The Ocular Accommodation Research Lab at the University of Plymouth conducts investigations to measure the accommodative function using different techniques and instruments. 

The team also focuses on measuring morphological changes occurring in different structures of the eye when accommodating. In addition, the team carries out fundamental research on what sort of information is the human eye able to use in order to detect the sign of defocus and thus accommodate accurately to dynamic changes in target vergence. This information is commonly referred to as cues for accommodation. For instance, depth perception and chromatic aberration (Figure 1) are two strong cues that help the eye to accommodate.

Ocular Acommodation
Figure 1 
The image of a Maltese cross formed on the retina is different for myopic and hyperopic defocus if chromatic aberration or even-order aberrations (e.g. spherical aberration) are present (first and third row). When odd-order aberrations are present (e.g. coma), the images are the same (second row).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Example of accommodation to a sinusoidally moving stimulus. In order to characterise the accommodative response, gain (G) and phase (P) were calculated for each cycle of the sinusoidal. 

Key publications

Lara F, Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Marín-Franch I, Riquelme-Nicolás R, López-Gil N. (2020) The Effect of Retinal Illuminance on the Subjective Amplitude of Accommodation. Optom Vis Sci; 87(8):641-647

Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Kruger PB, Lara F, López-Gil N. (2019). Aberrations and accommodation. Clinical and Experimental Optometry. doi: 10.1111/cxo.12938

Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Lara F, Bernal-Molina P, Riquelme-Nicolás R, Marín-Franch I, Esteve-Taboada JJ, Montés-Micó R, Kruger PB, López-Gil N. (2019). Effect of phenylephrine on static and dynamic accommodation. Journal of Optometry; 12:30-37.

Szostek, N., Buckhurst, H., Purslow, C., Drew, T., Collinson, A., & Buckhurst, P. (2018). Validation of Novel Metrics from the Accommodative Dynamic Profile. Vision, 2(3), 34.

Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Esteve-Taboada JJ, Papadatou E, Ferrer-Blasco T, Montés-Micó R. Amplitude, latency, and peak velocity in accommodation and disaccommodation dynamics. (2017). Biomed Research International; 2017:2735969.

Marín-Franch I, Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Bernal-Molina P, Esteve-Taboada JJ, López-Gil N, Montés-Micó R, Kruger PB. (2017). There is more to accommodation of the eye tan simply maximizing retinal contrast. Biomedical Optics Express; 8: 4717-4728.

Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Marín-Franch I, Bernal-Molina P, Esteve-Taboada JJ, Kruger PB, Montés-Micó R, López-Gil N. Accommodation responds to optical vergence and not defocus blur alone. (2017). Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science; 58: 1758-1763.

Bernal-Molina P, Marín-Franch I, Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Esteve-Taboada JJ, López-Gil N, Kruger PB, Montés-Micó R. Human eyes do not need monochromatic aberrations for dynamic accommodation. (2017). Ophthalmic & Physiological Optics; 37: 602-609.

Esteve-Taboada JJ, Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Bernal-Molina P, López-Gil N, Montés-Micó R, Kruger PB, Marín-Franch I. Dynamic accommodation without feedback does not respond to isolated blur cues. (2017). Vision Research; 136: 50-56.

Szostek N, Buckhurst P, Buckhurst H, Purslow C and Collinson A. (2016) An introduction to nutrition for an optometrist. Optometry in Practice 17 (3) 139-148.

Esteve-Taboada JJ, Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Marín-Franch I, Bernal-Molina P, Montés-Micó R, López-Gil N. (2015). Opto-mechanical artificial eye with accommodative ability. Optics Express; 23:19396-404.

Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Domínguez-Vicent A, Monsálvez-Romín D, Esteve-Taboada JJ, Papadatou E. (2018). Tolerance to rotation of toric monofocal and bifocal intraocular lenses. Optik; 157: 582-591

Papadatou E, Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Marín-Franch I, López-Gil N. (2016). Temporal multiplexing with adaptive optics for simultaneous vision. Biomedical Optics Express; 7: 4102-13.

Papadatou E, Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Esteve-Taboada JJ, Madrid-Costa D, Montés-Micó R. (2016). A method to assess the in vitro optical quality of presbyopic solutions based on the axial modulation transfer function. Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery; 42: 780-7.

Domínguez-Vicent A, Esteve-Taboada J, Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Ferrer-Blasco T, Montés-Micó R. (2016) In vitro optical quality comparison between the Mini WELL ready progressive multifocal and the TECNIS Symfony. Graefe’s Archives for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology; 254: 1387-97.

Domínguez-Vicent A, Esteve‐Taboada J, Del Águila-Carrasco A, Ferrer-Blasco T, Montés-Micó R. (2016). In vitro optical quality comparison of 2 trifocal intraocular lenses and 1 progressive multifocal intraocular lens. Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery; 42: 138-47

Esteve-Taboada JJ, Domínguez-Vicent A, Del Águila-Carrasco AJ, Ferrer-Blasco T, Montés-Micó R. (2015). Effect of Large Apertures on the Optical Quality of Three Multifocal Lenses. Journal of Refractive Surgery; 31:666-76.