Human faces under natural illumination, and human eyes in their unique morphology, include specific contrast polarity relations that face-detection mechanisms could capitalise on. Newborns have been shown to preferentially orient to simple face-like patterns only when they contain face- or gaze-relevant contrast. We investigated whether human adults show similar preferential orienting towards s...

PURPOSE The mouse eye has potential to become an important model for studies on the genetic control of eye growth and myopia. However, no data are published on the development of its optical properties. We developed a paraxial schematic model of the growing eye for the most common laboratory mouse strain, the C57BL/6 mouse, for the age range between 22 and 100 days. METHODS Refractive develop...

There is currently no agreement as to how specific or general are the mechanisms underlying newborns' face preferences. We address this issue by manipulating the contrast polarity of schematic and naturalistic face-related images and assessing the preferences of newborns. We find that for both schematic and naturalistic face images, the contrast polarity is important. Newborns did not show a pr...

In a variety of ocular disorders, square-wave gratings yield more optimistic estimates of visual acuity than more complex stimuli such as letters. However, for clinical vision testing of preverbal patients, square-wave gratings are usually employed in conjunction with preferential looking procedures. We developed a complex stimulus--a schematic face--for use in preferential looking procedures. ...

We derive equations for defocus and primary spherical wave aberration coefficients caused by a shift in image plane of a perfect optical system. The spherical aberration equation is accurate at describing changes in the spherical aberration of an aberrated schematic eye.

Form deprivation (FD) was induced in 61 guinea pigs with a diffuser worn on one eye. The form-deprived eye elongated and developed myopia within 6 days in animals raised under a 12:12 h light/dark cycle, but not when reared in darkness. After 11 days of FD, the average eye was -6.6 D more myopic and 146 microm longer than its fellow eye. Initially the myopia was mostly from vitreous chamber elo...

Schematic eye models have typically been used to explain the average monochromatic and chromatic imaging properties of the eye. Both monochromatic aberrations and transverse chromatic aberration are known to vary widely across subjects. However, to our knowledge, the ability of schematic eye models to predict these individual variations has not been tested experimentally. We used a spatially re...

Pictorial faces looking left or right were presented to baboons (Papio papio) before the display of a target letter in the left or right hemifield of a monitor screen. Baboons had to provide go or no-go responses taking into account the identity of the target letter. The 1st 6 experiments showed no reliable effect of eye gaze on discrimination speed, using either schematic gazes or pictures of ...

Human eyes are unique. Unlike other primates whose pupils are masked by a dark sclera, the human eye highlights a dark pupil against a white sclera. Newborn infants look longer at schematic stimuli with three blobs arranged in a face-like configuration – but only if the blobs match the dark-on-light phenotype of the human eye. If a visual preference for faces with human-like eyes is innately sp...