Fang Hou
Zhong-Lin Lu
Peter Bex
Alexandre Reynaud- 1State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Optometry and Vision Science, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
- 2National Engineering Research Center of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Eye Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
- 3School of Ophthalmology and Optometry, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China
- 4Division of Arts and Sciences, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
- 5Center for Neural Science and Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, United States
- 6NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
- 7Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States
- 8McGill Vision Research, McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada
Editorial on the Research Topic
The contrast sensitivity function: from laboratory to clinic, volume II
This is the second volume of Research Topic, “The contrast sensitivity function: from laboratory to clinic”.
Visual acuity evaluates spatial resolution (Whittaker and Lovie-Kitchin, 1993), but it is a poor predictor of performance in critical daily tasks (Gruber et al., 2013). On the other hand, contrast sensitivity (1/threshold) measures the ability to detect subtle changes in light against a background. The contrast sensitivity function (CSF) quantifies how contrast sensitivity varies as a function of spatial frequency, accounting for optical and neural effects at various stages in the central visual system. Importantly, the CSF is more closely related to performance in daily visual tasks (Owsley et al., 2020).
Many visual diseases affect visual acuity and the CSF differently. In the early stages of several clinical conditions, visual acuity may remain normal or near-normal, while the CSF exhibits deficits that may be spatial frequency dependent (Vingopoulos et al., 2023). Moreover, several studies found significant structure-function associations between CSF deficits and anatomical changes in various eye diseases (Tu et al., 2023).
This Research Topic comprises six research articles. The first three articles focus on understanding the visual system. Visual information is initially processed by a bank of spatial frequency channels beginning in the retina and continuing through primary visual cortex. Reynaud and Min applied exploratory factor analysis to contrast sensitivity data from amblyopic and normally-sighted individuals in five different studies. They discovered that the CSF in the amblyopic visual system is subserved by the same spatial frequency channels as the normal visual system, with the only difference being an approximately 50% reduction in the weight attributed to the high-spatial frequency channel in the amblyopic eye.
Anatomically, the eyes provide two separate streams of information, which are integrated into a binocular response by the primary visual cortex. Yu and Watson investigated binocular summation at high and low contrasts in visual acuity measurement and found a positive correlation in binocular summation between high and low contrast. They also identified a significant association between a baseline measure and the change in binocular summation between contrast levels.
Monocular pattern deprivation (MPD) can modulate binocular interactions (Hess and Min, 2023). Li et al. found MPD effectively improved the contrast sensitivity of the deprived eye, especially when external noise was absent, and had a more profound effect at higher spatial frequencies. Using the perceptual template model (PTM) (Lu and Dosher, 1998), their results revealed that MPD decreased internal additive noise in the deprived eye, providing insights into the mechanisms underlying short-term MPD.
The remaining studies demonstrated the clinical utility of measuring the CSF in different eye diseases. In the study by Xu et al., the central and peripheral CSF were measured in myopic and emmetropic individuals. Myopic individuals exhibited significantly increased contrast sensitivity in the 6° parafovea and 12° parafovea regions compared to emmetropic individuals. The authors suggested that peripheral contrast sensitivity may play a role in the growth of emmetropic eyes.
Lu et al. evaluated the changes in optical quality and visual function after 3 months of wearing orthokeratotic (OK) lenses in children. They observed that optical quality decreased after 3 months of OK lens wear, while the CSF remained unchanged. This suggests that neural adaptation could compensate for the alteration in optical quality.
Jin et al. measured S-cone sensitivity in patients with thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) who had normal visual acuity and visual fields, and no apparent signs of orbital congestion. They found a selective S-cone deficit in the early stage of TAO, indicating that S-cone sensitivity can be used for early detection of thyroid dysfunction optic neuropathy in TAO patients.
In summary, in addition to our first volume of “The contrast sensitivity function: from laboratory to clinic” (Hou et al., 2021), current Research Topic not only enriches our understanding of visual processing but also provides valuable insights into the clinical management of eye diseases.
Author contributions
FH: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. Z-LL: Writing—review & editing. PB: Writing—review & editing. AR: Writing—review & editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC82371097 to FH) and the National Science and Technology Innovation 2030 Major Program (2022ZD0204801 to FH).
Conflict of interest
PB and Z-LL hold equity shares in Adaptive Sensory Technology, Inc. and have patents related to the qCSF technology.
The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
References
Gruber, N., Mosimann, U. P., Müri, R. M., and Nef, T. (2013). Vision and night driving abilities of elderly drivers. Traffic Injury Prevent. 14, 477–485. doi: 10.1080/15389588.2012.727510
Hess, R. F., and Min, S. H. (2023). Is ocular dominance plasticity a special case of contrast adaptation? Vision Res. 207, 108212. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2023.108212
Hou, F., Lu, Z.-L., Bex, P., and Reynaud, A. (2021). Editorial: the contrast sensitivity function: from laboratory to clinic. Front. Neurosci. 15, 783674–783674. doi: 10.3389/978-2-88971-883-2
Lu, Z. L., and Dosher, B. A. (1998). External noise distinguishes attention mechanisms. Vision Res. 38, 1183–1198. doi: 10.1016/S0042-6989(97)00273-3
Owsley, C., Swain, T., Liu, R., McGwin, G., and Kwon, M. Y. (2020). Association of photopic and mesopic contrast sensitivity in older drivers with risk of motor vehicle collision using naturalistic driving data. BMC Ophthalmol. 20, 47. doi: 10.1186/s12886-020-1331-7
Tu, Y., Jin, H., Xu, M., Liu, W., Hu, X., Wang, M., et al. (2023). Reduced contrast sensitivity function correlated with superficial retinal capillary plexus impairment in early stage of dysthyroid optic neuropathy. Eye Vision 10, 11. doi: 10.1186/s40662-023-00328-3
Vingopoulos, F., Garg, I., Kim, E. L., Thomas, M., Silverman, R., Kasetty, M., et al. (2023). Quantitative contrast sensitivity test to assess visual function in central serous chorioretinopathy. Br. J. Ophthalmol. 107, 1139–1143. doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2021-320415
Keywords: contrast sensitivity function, spatial frequency channel, binocular summation, monocular deprivation, myopia, ortho-K, thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy
Citation: Hou F, Lu Z-L, Bex P and Reynaud A (2023) Editorial: The contrast sensitivity function: from laboratory to clinic, volume II. Front. Neurosci. 17:1336649. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1336649
Received: 11 November 2023; Accepted: 17 November 2023;
Published: 05 December 2023.
Edited and reviewed by: Rufin VanRullen, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France
Copyright © 2023 Hou, Lu, Bex and Reynaud. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Fang Hou, houf@mail.eye.ac.cn