Measuring the Behavioral Effects of Intraocular Scatter

Intraocular scatter, with its associated functional manifestations, is a leading cause of automotive accidents and a significant biomarker of covert and overt ocular disease (e.g., diseases of the cornea and lens). Nearly all current methods of measuring the behavioral consequences of light scatter, however, suffer from various limitations mostly reflecting a lack of construct and content validity: to wit, the measures do not adequately reflect real world conditions (e.g., artificial light vs. sunlight) or everyday tasks (e.g., recognition under visually demanding conditions).

This protocol describes two novel, ecologically valid methods of measuring the behavioral effects of intraocular scatter by quantifying scatter geometry and visual recognition under glare conditions. The former was measured by assessing the diameter of halos and spokes that resulted from a bright point source. Light spread (essentially, the point spread function determined using Rayleigh criteria) was quantified by determining the minimum perceivable distance between two small points of broad-band light. The latter was done based on the identification of letters formed using apertures through which bright light was shone.