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Data suggest ciliary muscle thickness affects academic achievement
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SEATTLE – Results from a study reported here at the American Academy of Optometry annual meeting provide preliminary evidence suggesting that a larger anterior ciliary muscle is associated with better test scores.
Melissa D. Bailey, OD, PhD, FAAO, told attendees at an academy-sponsored press conference that she and her colleagues measured thickness and dimensions of the ciliary muscle in 166 children with a mean age of 9.17 years.
“All images and autorefraction measurements were obtained under cycloplegia,” according to the study abstract.
The children were also administered the Ohio Academy Achievement Test.
“We wondered how this muscle would work in terms of size and dimensions, related to how children can function throughout the school day,” Bailey said.
“We found that children with a thicker muscle had higher scores on the reading portion of the academic achievement test,” she said.
“Now we have to find out why,” she continued. “Maybe the children who read more over their first few years of life, their muscles become larger and they’re able to score better on the test.”
Bailey offered another analogy.
“If I had started training at the age of 3 to be a world-class sprinter, I’m not sure if that would have worked out,” she said. “I’m not built that way. We may find some children just have a ciliary muscle that isn’t built for reading for extended periods of time, and maybe we can help them out with appropriate eye wear.”