Abstract
Refractive errors tend to be the norm in young infants but generally resolve during early development through emmetropization. Once thought to be largely a passive process, animal studies have provided definitive proof of a defocus-driven active process of local ocular growth regulation, which is sensitive to the sign of defocus and relies on input from not only the central retina, but the peripheral retina as well. In myopia, this process appears to derail, and eyes continue to elongate beyond that required to achieve emmetropia, This presentation will provide an update, based on results from relevant animal and human studies, on current thinking around ocular growth regulation and the origin of the current epidemic of myopia, which is predicted to affect 50% of the world's population by 2050.
Meeting abstract presented at the 2016 OSA Fall Vision Meeting