Modelling directionality of photoreceptors in the human eye as a function of monochromatic aberrations

The cone photoreceptors of the retina are directed towards the centre of the eye´s pupil. It has been suggested that the photoreceptors directionality is linked to the optical aberrations induced by the cornea and crystalline lens in the eye. We show that the cone directionality can be modelled by a two-dimensional Gaussian function whose parameters vary according to the measured monochromatic aberrations of the eye. Our modelling is based on a hypothesis that cones directionality is optimised so that resulting quality of the retinal image is maximised. This criterion is equivalent to maximising the energy of the system response. This methodology might also be used in cost-effective automatic image enhancement systems for correcting higher-order aberrations without the need of applying adaptive optics.