The differences in accommodative responses during RSVP reading in groups with different refractive errors

Objective To investigate the accommodative responses in progressive myopes, stable myopes and emmetropes when reading. Methods The accommodative responses of the left eye were measured with a Grand SEIKO-WV 500 autorefractor in 45 subjects (15 progressive myopes, 15 stable myopes and 15 emmetropes). Excerpts from Chinese novels were used as reading material and presented by rapid serial visual presentation with one character at a time on a computer screen at a distance of 25 cm. A 9-point character size was presented at a rate of 150 characters/minute. Results All of the subjects showed some accommodative lag with the same accommodative stimuli of 4 D but had large individual variability. The accommodative responses for progressive myopes were lower than that for emmetropes [(2.32±0.43)D vs (3.19±0.53)D,P0.01]. The accommodative responses for progressive myopes were also lower than that for stable myopes [(2.32±0.43)D vs (3.07±0.34)D,P0.01]. However, there were no significant differences in accommodative responses between emmetropes and stable myopes (P=0.441). Conclusion Progressive myopes show lower accommodative response at near, the high accommodative lag induced retinal image may be linked to myopia development, and the accommodative response will return to normal values when myopia progression stabilizes.