Coherence function analysis of the higher-order aberrations of the human eye

We measured the wavefront aberrations of the eyes of five subjects with a Shack-Hartmann sensor sampling at 21.2 Hz and decomposed the measurements into Zernike aberration terms up to and including the fifth radial order. Coherence function analysis was used to determine the common frequency components between the aberrations within subjects. We found the results to be highly subject dependent. The coherence values were typically < 0.4. Possible reasons for this are discussed. Coherence function analysis is a useful tool that can be used in future investigations to determine correlations between the aberration dynamics of the eye and other physiological mechanisms. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.