Opening Remarks of the President, 2nd ISVO, Professor G.M. Breinin, M.D. The study of visual processes is surely unique as a clinical specialty, in corporating the disciplines of physics, chemistry, physiology, and psycho logy. Diagnosing and correcting disorders of the visual system in these last two decades of the 20th century has brought all of us into close prox imity with computer sciences, laser technology, the marvels of electronic microcircuitry, and the impressive developments in optical materials. Dur ing the course of this meeting we shall be hearing about how these different technologies can interact with one another, and we shall discover that such interaction may produce new diagnostic tools and new optical devices. We shall also learn that the optical qualities of the eye change during life, producing subtle and complex alterations in vision. On behalf of the members and organizing committee of the American Commit tee on Optics and Visual Physiology and our co-sponsoring organization, the Optical Society of America, I welcome you to this second symposium on visual optics. The first symposium took place in Japan in 1978 and, like the pres ent one, was a satellite meeting of the International Congress of Ophthal mology. The third symposium in this series will take place in Italy in 1986 as part of the next session of the International Congress of Ophthalmology.

Inhalt
1 Optical Characteristics of the Eye.- On the Anatomy of Ocular Optics.- Wide-Angle Optical Model of the Eye.- Measurement of Visual Axis Using a Laser Beam.- A Study of the Effects of Bleaching on the Width and Index of Refraction on Goldfish Cone Outer Segments.- 2 Objective Refractometry.- The Design of an Open View Autorefractometer.- A Semi-Automatic Refractometer with a TV Monitor Allowing One Position Measures of Ametropia.- A New Microprocessor-Assisted Objective Refractor.- Direct Recording of Accommodative Response versus Accommodative Stimulus.- Lag of Accommodation.- The Effects of Various Eye Diseases on the Measurement of Refractive Error Using the Nikon Autorefractometer.- 3 Applied Optics.- A Distortion-Free Cross-Cylinder System for Automated Subjective Refraction.- Enhancing the Efficiency of Cross-Cylinder Astigmatism Testing.- Parameters of the Change in Clinical Refractive Error in Young Myopes.- Deformed Aspheric Ophthalmic Lenses.- A New Sphero-Cylinder Trial Lens for Aphakic Correction and Its Clinical Application.- Corneal Specular Microscopy Using a Contact Lens.- Calculating Tear Volumes Under Thin Hydrogel Contact Lenses.- 4 Electronic Visualization of the Fundus.- An Overview of the Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscope.- Quantification of the Shape and Color of the Optic Nerve Head.- 5 Developments in Visual Electrodiagnostic Techniques.- Electrical Soundings in the Visual Current.- Application of Laser Speckle Patterns to Visual Evoked Potentials.- An Automatic Intermittent Light Stimulator to Record Flicker Perceptive Thresholds in Patients with Retinal Disease.- Superacuity in the Spared Eyes of Monocular Deprivation Amblyopes: Visual Evoked Response Measurements.- Pupillary Escape and Visual Fatigue Phenomena in Optic Nerve Disease.- 6 ClinicalApplications of Visual Psychophysical Testing.- Recent Developments in Clinical Contrast Sensitivity Testing.- Contrast Sensitivity Testing in Patients with Juvenile Diabetes.- The Effect of CAM Treatment and Occlusion Therapy on Contrast Sensitivity Function in Amblyopia.- A Psychophysical Technique for Testing Explanations of Sensitivity Loss Due to Retinal Disease.- Dynamics of Visual Adaptation are Altered in Vascular Disease.- Influence of Variable-Sized Backgrounds on a Hyperacuity Threshold.- Assessment of Temporal Resolution in Multiple Sclerosis by Multi-Flash Campimetry.- Index of Contributors.