As adults age, their dark adaption is slower; it takes longer to recover
their vision when going from a light to a dark area.
<h3>How does age affect dark adaptation?</h3>
Results indicated that during human aging there is a dramatic slowing in a rod-mediated dark adaptation that can be attributed to delayed rhodopsin regeneration.
Even in the absence of ocular disease, older adults have significant difficulty seeing in low light and at night.
The severity of this issue cannot be explained by optical changes in the aging eye, such as pupillary miosis and increased lens density, and little is known about the neural basis of this issue.
94 adults between the ages of 20 and 80 had their dark adaptation functions measured in order to determine how quickly rod-mediated sensitivity recovered after being exposed to 98% bleach.
In order to control for macular disease, fundus photography and a grading system were used to describe macular health in subjects over the age of 49.
