The effect of accommodation on peripheral refraction under two illumination conditions

The clinical importance of peripheral refraction as a function of accommodation has become increasingly evident in the last years with special attention given to myopia control. Low order ocular aberrations were measured with a Hartmann–Shack aberrometer in a sample of 28 young emmetropic subjects. A stationary Maltese cross was presented at 2.5 D and 5.0 D of accommodative demand and at 0°, 10° and 20° of eccentricity in the horizontal visual field under two different illumination conditions (white and red light). Wavefront data for a 3 mm pupil diameter were analyzed in terms of the vector components of refraction (M, J0 and J45) and the relative peripheral refractive error (RPRE) was calculated. M was myopic at both accommodative demands and showed a statistically significant myopic increase with red illumination. No significant change in J0 and J45 was found with accommodation nor between illumination conditions. However, J0 increased significantly with eccentricity, exhibiting a nasal-temporal asymmetry. The RPRE was myopic at both accommodation demands and showed a statistically significant hyperopic shift at 20° in the nasal retina. The use of red light introduced statistically and clinically significant changes in M, explained by the variation of the ocular focal length under a higher wavelength illumination, increasing the experimental accommodative demand. These findings may be of relevance for research exploring peripheral refraction under accommodation, as the choice of target illumination is not trivial.This research was funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of the Spanish government (PID2020-114582RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 956720