Cone-isolation contrast sensitivity – do pupil and stimulus sizes matter?

ABSTRACT

Clinical relevance

Computer-based colour perception tests permit clinical assessment of cone-specific pathways, proving valuable for both identifying type and severity of hereditary colour vision deficiency and enhanced detection and monitoring of acquired colour deficiency from disease. Understanding the parameters that affect computer-based colour perception tests may enhance their veracity and clinical utility.

Background

Testing contrast sensitivity separately for the three cone systems enables a quantification of colour perception that can be clinically useful. This study evaluated the effects of pupil diameter and stimulus size on cone contrast sensitivity (CCS) assessed with the ColorDx (Konan Medical, Incorporated).

Methods

Forty subjects, aged 21–31 years, who met the inclusion criteria participated. The tested eye was randomised. Two Landolt C sizes (2.68 degrees, 6/194, “small”; 8.58 degrees, 6/619, “large”) were used, with one size and three chromaticities presented per block of trials. Stimulus presentation used the adaptive screening mode, sequentially determining contrast sensitivity for long-, medium-, and short-wavelength stimuli. Subjects were tested with their natural pupil size (range 4–5 mm diameter), then while viewing through a 2.5-mm artificial pupil. Parametric statistical tests were used for comparisons of performance across pupil size and stimulus size.

Results

Two-way within-subjects ANOVA indicates no interaction between pupil size and stimulus size for any of the three stimulus chromaticities. The main effect of stimulus size was significant for M-cone (F = 6.506, 2-tailed P = .015) and S-cone (F = 67.728, 2-tailed P < .001) stimuli. The main effect of pupil size was significant for all three stimulus chromaticities (L-cone: F = 227.161, M-cone: F = 249.979, S-cone: F = 89.371, 2-tailed P < .001 for all).

Conclusion

Although CCS was reduced for all three chromaticities and both stimulus sizes with lower retinal illuminance, only S-wavelength cone contrast sensitivity was significantly different for the small versus large stimuli under the 2.5-mm pupil condition in this cohort. Whether CCS in older patients with naturally small pupils changes with an enlarged stimulus or dilated pupils remains to be explored.

KEYWORDS:

• Colour perception
• cone-isolation
• contrast sensitivity
• pupil size
• stimulus size

Acknowledgments

Neither author has conflicts of interest to report. Thanks is extended to The Eye Center at Southern College of Optometry for permission to use the instrument in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).