Measuring the eye's mechanical properties in vivo and with minimally invasive
techniques can be the key for individualized solutions to a number of eye
pathologies. The development of such techniques largely relies on a
computational modelling of the eyeball and, it optimally requires the synergic
interplay between experimentation and numerical simulation. In Astrophysics and
Geophysics the remote measurement of structural properties of the systems of
their realm is performed on the basis of (helio-)seismic techniques. As a
biomechanical system, the eyeball possesses normal vibrational modes
encompassing rich information about its structure and mechanical properties.
However, the integral analysis of the eyeball vibrational modes has not been
performed yet. Here we develop a new finite difference method to compute both
the spheroidal and, specially, the toroidal eigenfrequencies of the human eye.
Using this numerical model, we show that the vibrational eigenfrequencies of
the human eye fall in the interval 100 Hz - 10 MHz. We find that compressible
vibrational modes may release a trace on high frequency changes of the
intraocular pressure, while incompressible normal modes could be registered
analyzing the scattering pattern that the motions of the vitreous humour leave
on the retina. Existing contact lenses with embebed devices operating at high
sampling frequency could be used to register the microfluctuations of the
eyeball shape we obtain. We advance that an inverse problem to obtain the
mechanical properties of a given eye (e.g., Young's modulus, Poisson ratio)
measuring its normal frequencies is doable. These measurements can be done
using non-invasive techniques, opening very interesting perspectives to
estimate the mechanical properties of eyes in vivo. Future research might
relate various ocular pathologies with anomalies in measured vibrational
frequencies of the eye.Comment: Published in PLoS ONE as Open Access Research Article. 17 pages, 5
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