Adaptive optics for studying visual function: a comprehensive review.

Compared to most ophthalmic technologies, adaptive optics, or AO, is relatively young. The first working systems were presented in 1997 and, owing in part to its complexity, the development of AO systems has been relatively slow. Nevertheless, AO for vision science is coming of age and the scope of applications continues to increase. Applications of AO can be broadly split along two lines; for retinal imaging and for testing visual function. This review will focus on the applications of adaptive optics for testing visual function. Since this represents only a subset of the field of AO for ophthalmoscopy, it is possible to cite virtually every paper that has been published in the field to date. As such, this is a comprehensive review whose intent is to get all readers up to speed on the state of the art. More importantly, perhaps, this review will focus on the types of science that can be accomplished with AO with a view to future applications. The reference list alone is informative, since the reader will quickly discover that the community that is using AO for vision science is rather small. Looking at the dates for the cited papers, the reader will also discover that the field is rapidly expanding.