It enrolls over 500 students and is one of the oldest continually operating college of optometry in the United States. It was originally established as the Klein School of Optics in 1894 by Dr. August Andreas Klein, an ophthalmologist. The college moved to several locations around Boston, and was known as the Massachusetts School of Optometry and the Massachusetts College of Optometry until it came to reside in its current location in the Back Bay section of Boston.The college offers both Doctor of Optometry (O.D.) and Master of Science in Vision Science degrees. Special emphasis is placed on direct contact with patients, and to this end students make use of the College's owned and operated clinics, NECO Center for Eye Care Commonwealth and Roslindale, as well as the NECO Clinical Network of eye care centers..
Objectives:The integration of stroboscopic eyewear into sport-specific warm-ups has demonstrated potential for enhancing performance. This study investigated the immediate effects of stroboscopic stimulation on sport-specific performance in padel, focusing on volley accuracy and reactive agility. Methods:Twenty competitive male padel players (26.0 ± 6.3 years) completed two experimental sessions in a counterbalanced within-subjects design: one involving a warm-up with stroboscopic eyewear (5 Hz, 50% duty cycle) and another under normal visual conditions. Performance was evaluated during and after the warm-up in each condition using a volley accuracy task, and a light-based reactive agility test was assessed after the warm-up. Results:Volley accuracy performance was significantly reduced under stroboscopic conditions compared to control conditions (p < 0.001, d = 3.14). However, volley performance significantly improved after the stroboscopic warm-up compared to the control post-warm-up (p = 0.041, d = 0.52). No statistically significant differences were found for reactive agility (p = 0.092), though a small-to-moderate effect size favored the stroboscopic condition (d = 0.41). Conclusions:A single warm-up session using stroboscopic stimulation can acutely enhance volley accuracy in padel once normal vision is restored, suggesting potential for perceptual-motor priming. Effects on reactive agility were inconclusive, potentially due to task specificity and stimulus limitations. These insights may help coaches boost performance by integrating this approach into pre-training and pre-competition routines.
Purpose:The purpose of this study was to determine how binocular viewing and real depth influence accommodation in childhood, and whether these effects vary with refractive error (M), axial length (AXL), or future myopia. Methods:Children with emmetropia (N = 92, 7.42 years, range = 6.58-8.33; cycloplegic M = +1.01 D, range = 0.62-1.42) completed accommodation testing every 6 months (3 years, 7 visits). In visits (V) 1 to 3, accommodation was assessed only under monocular conditions (flat stimulus). Beginning at V4, two conditions were added: flat binocular and 3D-depth binocular. This analysis includes V4 to V7, enabling longitudinal within-child comparisons across conditions. Static (40 cm) and dynamic (1-4 D sinusoidal) accommodation was recorded with an open-field autorefractor. Linear mixed-effects models compared responses among viewing conditions, testing moderation by age, M, AXL, and myopia outcome. Results:Binocular viewing increased dynamic amplitude (Amp; Δ ≈ 0.45 D, P < 0.01) and lengthened dynamic phase (Δ ≈ 0.12 seconds, P < 0.01) relative to monocular. It also modestly increased static accommodation response (AR) and reduced lag (both Δ ≈ 0.10 D, P < 0.01). Depth cues had no effect on dynamic accommodation (P > 0.25), but improved static responses with lower lag (Δ ≈ 0.09 D, P < 0.01) and higher AR (Δ ≈ 0.09 D, P < 0.01) under 3D viewing. M significantly moderated several binocular and depth effects (P ≤ 0.01), but AXL did not. Myopia outcome groups did not differ overall (P > 0.16), but showed significant depth × outcome interactions were found for lag (P = 0.02) and AR (P = 0.03). Conclusions:Binocular and depth cues enhance accommodative performance in children and these effects vary with M (more hyperopic children show greater benefit from binocular and depth cues). Children who later became myopic demonstrated reduced benefit from depth cues, suggesting altered cue utilization may precede myopia onset.
Purpose:Measurement of the axial length (AL) of the eye and the crystalline lens thickness (LT) relies on information of the refractive index of the crystalline lens for converting optical path-length (OPL) to geometric size. The purpose of this study was to measure the lens refractive index (NLens) in vivo for patients with cataract and evaluate the influence of the NLens on AL and LT measurements. Methods:Cataract eyes of 7 patients, aged 56 to 77 years old (mean = 64.7 years), were imaged with a combined whole-eye optical coherence tomography (OCT) and Scheimpflug Imaging (SI) system before surgery. The images were processed using a custom MatLab program to trace the central light-ray from the cornea to the retina and to solve the average lens refractive index (NLens). The OPLs of other ocular segments, except the lens, were converted to geometric lengths by using the refractive indices from a model eye. The AL and LT were calculated with the measured NLens and also a constant NLens (1.41) for comparison. Results:For the patients with cataract, mean AL and LT were 23.897 ± 0.854 and 4.309 ± 0.438 mm, respectively, when the measured NLens was used for OPL conversion, and changed to 23.918 ± 0.875 mm and 4.330 ± 0.461 mm, respectively, when the NLens was set at 1.41. The lens NLens from individual eyes varied from 1.400 to 1.434 among the patients, and caused a substantial individual variation in the AL and LT measurements, as compared with those with a constant NLens in a range from -0.070 to 0.027 mm. Conclusions:The Scheimpflug imaging-equipped whole-eye OCT system provides a useful technique to measure AL and LT with the NLens determined for the cataract eye in vivo. The NLens varies substantially from individual eye to individual eye among the patients with cataract, and plays a critical role for deriving accurate AL and LT measurements. During cataract surgery the accurate AL and LT measurements should be used for IOL power calculation.
Perception of contact lens wear and eye care differs by generation. A study commissioned by the Contact Lens Institute and conducted by Prodege surveyed 1308 vision corrected residents from the United States and Canada from July to August 2025. The participants were divided into three generational cohorts: Gen Z (ages 15-28), Millennials (ages 29-44) and Gen X (ages 45-60) to assess how different ages affect habits and attitudes in contact lens decisions and eye care. Results indicate that Gen Zs wear contact lenses less than previous generations, and generational differences exist in rationale for wearing contact lenses. Furthermore, it highlights that what motivates one generation’s eye care choices may not necessarily be the same as those of other generations. These insights into what influences Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X are valuable in helping the eye care community attract new contact lens patients, as well as increase patient satisfaction and meet patient needs through targeted communication and education.
