Structured light enhanced entoptic stimuli for vision science applications

Dmitry A Pushin; David G Cory; Connor Kapahi; Mukhit Kulmaganbetov; Melanie Mungalsingh; Andrew E Silva; Taranjit Singh; Benjamin Thompson; Dusan Sarenac

doi:10.3389/fnins.2023.1232532

Structured light enhanced entoptic stimuli for vision science applications

Front Neurosci. 2023 Jul 25:17:1232532. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1232532. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Dmitry A Pushin^{1

2

3}, David G Cory^{3

4}, Connor Kapahi^{1

3}, Mukhit Kulmaganbetov², Melanie Mungalsingh⁵, Andrew E Silva⁵, Taranjit Singh², Benjamin Thompson^{2

5}, Dusan Sarenac^{2

3

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
² Centre for Eye and Vision Research, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
³ Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁵ School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁶ Department of Physics, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, United States.

Abstract

The dichroic macular pigment in the Henle fiber layer in the fovea enables humans to perceive entoptic phenomena when viewing polarized blue light. In the standard case of linearly polarized stimuli, a faint bowtie-like pattern known as the Haidinger's brush appears in the central point of fixation. As the shape and clarity of the perceived signal is directly related to the health of the macula, Haidinger's brush has been used as a diagnostic marker in studies of early stage macular degeneration and central field visual dysfunction. However, due to the weak nature of the perceived signal the perception of the Haidinger's brush has not been integrated with modern clinical methods. Recent attempts have been made to increase the strength of the perceived signal by employing structured light with spatially varying polarization profiles. Here we review the advancements with the structured light stimuli and describe the current challenges and future prospects.

Keywords: Haidinger's brush; age-related macular degeneration; entoptic phenomena; macular pigment; structured light.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Canadian Excellence Research Chairs (CERC) program, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) grants (RGPIN−2018 − 04989), (RPIN−05394), and (RGPAS−477166), the Government of Canada's New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) (NFRFE−2019 − 00446), the Velux Stiftung Foundation (Grant 1188), the InnoHK initiative and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, and the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF).