Effects of induced transverse chromatic aberration from an afocal prismatic lens on spatio-temporal sensitivity

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of ophthalmic lens-induce d transverse chromatic aberrations (TCA) in natural viewing conditions on s patio-temporal thresholds. Three psychophysical experiments were performed; the first isolating the spatial component, the second isolating the tempor al component and the third assessing spatio-temporal combinations. Taken to gether, the results show that TCA has profound effects on medium to high sp atial frequencies (above 1 cpd) consistent with previous studies, and that the ratio of deficit TCA/blur can be higher than 2:1 for equivalent dioptri c strengths. Furthermore, the results of Experiment 1 and 3 taken together show that the relative sensitivity loss caused by TCA can differ significan tly between individuals and that a possible factor for this differential lo ss is the overall baseline spatio-temporal sensitivity profile of the indiv idual. (C) 1999 The College of Optometrists. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.