Miller D T, Williams D R, Morris G M, Liang J
Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
Vision Res. 1996 Apr;36(8):1067-79. doi: 10.1016/0042-6989(95)00225-1.
Though the photoreceptor mosaic has been imaged through the intact optics of the eyes of several species, it has not been clear whether individual photoreceptors can be resolved in the living human eye. We have constructed a high-resolution fundus camera and have resolved cones with a spacing as small as 3.5 microns in single images of the fundus. The high contrast of these images implies that almost all the light returning from the retina at this wavelength (555 nm) has passed through the apertures of foveal cones. The average power spectra of our retinal images show that it is possible to recover spatial frequencies as high as 150 c/deg in eyes with normal optical quality, a conclusion that was confirmed with estimates of the optical quality of these eyes obtained with a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor. These results emphasize the superiority of the eye's optics over the spatial sampling limits of the retina when the eye's optical quality is optimized. They also show that it would be possible to routinely resolve retinal structures as small as photoreceptors in the normal living eye if its aberrations could be corrected.
尽管已经通过几种物种眼睛的完整光学系统对光感受器镶嵌结构进行了成像，但尚不清楚在活人眼中是否能分辨出单个光感受器。我们构建了一台高分辨率眼底相机，并在眼底的单张图像中分辨出间距小至3.5微米的视锥细胞。这些图像的高对比度意味着在该波长（555纳米）下从视网膜返回的几乎所有光都穿过了中央凹视锥细胞的孔径。我们视网膜图像的平均功率谱表明，在具有正常光学质量的眼睛中可以恢复高达150周/度的空间频率，这一结论通过使用哈特曼-夏克波前传感器获得的这些眼睛的光学质量估计得到了证实。这些结果强调了当眼睛的光学质量得到优化时，眼睛光学系统相对于视网膜空间采样极限的优越性。它们还表明，如果能够校正眼睛的像差，在正常活眼中常规分辨小至光感受器大小的视网膜结构是可能的。
