Asymmetric Wavefront Aberrations and Pupillary Shapes Induced by Electrical Stimulation of Ciliary Nerve in Cats Measured with Compact Wavefront Aberrometer

To investigate the changes in the wavefront aberrations and pupillary shape in response to electrical stimulation of the branches of the ciliary nerves in cats. Seven eyes of seven cats were studied under general anesthesia. Trains of monophasic pulses (current, 0.1 to 1.0 mA; duration, 0.5 ms/phase; frequency, 5 to 40 Hz) were applied to the lateral or medial branch of the short ciliary nerve near the posterior pole of the eye. A pair of electrodes was hooked onto one or both branch of the short ciliary nerve. The electrodes were placed about 5 mm from the scleral surface. The wavefront aberrations were recorded continuously for 2 seconds before, 8 seconds during, and for 20 seconds after the electrical stimulation. The pupillary images were simultaneously recorded during the stimulation period. Both the wavefront aberrations and the pupillary images were obtained 10 times/sec with a custom-built wavefront aberrometer. The maximum accommodative amplitude was 1.19 diopters (D) produced by electrical stimulation of the short ciliary nerves. The latency of the accommodative changes was very short, and the accommodative level gradually increased up to 4 seconds and reached a plateau. When only one branch of the ciliary nerve was stimulated, the pupil dilated asymmetrically, and the oblique astigmatism and one of the asymmetrical wavefront terms was also altered. Our results showed that the wavefront aberrations and pupillary dilations can be measured simultaneously and serially with a compact wavefront aberrometer. The asymmetric pupil dilation and asymmetric changes of the wavefront aberrations suggest that each branch of the ciliary nerve innervates specific segments of the ciliary muscle and dilator muscle of the pupil.