title: Functional relationship between myopia, accommodative stress and against-the-rule astigmia: a hypothesis.
abstract: A model is proposed to explain the well-established tendency for against-the-rule astigmatism to precede and be predictive of the later development of myopia. It is hypothesized that the against-the-rule astigmatism is a functional adaptation to reduce near point stress by permitting reduced accommodative output (increased lag of accommodation) while maintaining resolution for the primarily vertically-oriented characters of the English language.
mesh_terms: D000065:Accommodation, Ocular; D000221:Adaptation, Ocular; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001251:Astigmatism / Q000209:etiology*; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009216:Myopia / Q000209:etiology*; D011932:Reading; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000150:complications*