The role of lenticular senescence in age-related color vision changes

PURPOSE. It has been reported that greater age-related losses in sensitivity occur for short-wavelength visual stimuli than for medium- and long-wavelength visual stimuli. The purpose of the current experiment was to determine to what extent optical, receptoral, and postreceptoral factors contribute to these age-related changes in color vision. METHODS. One hundred two observers (ages 18 - 87) completed a minimum motion task to determine isoluminance between red and green and between red and blue. A motion-nulling task was also performed to assess the L-M postreceptoral chromatic mechanism. RESULTS. No significant age-related changes occurred in red-green isoluminance values. Red-blue isoluminance values showed a significant and systematic decrease with age in observers with phakic eyes. Pseudophakic eyes in older subjects performed this task as well as phakic eyes in young subjects. The motion-nuffing results demonstrated small age-related losses in the postreceptoral color mechanisms. CONCLUSIONS. The findings of this experiment, particularly those of the red-blue isoluminance task, indicate that the optical factor of lenticular senescence is the main contributor to the age-related changes observed in color vision. A model based on age-related changes in lenticular absorbance shows good fit with the experimental data of observers with phakic eyes, suggesting that optical factors are the main cause of the age-related changes in these color vision tasks.