Tonic vergence, age and clinical presbyopia.

The relative contribution of tonic vergence to the maximum near vergence response as a function of age and the development of presbyopia has received little attention. Tonic vergence position was measured subjectively in a group of 50 subjects between 20 and 68 years of age. While there was no progressive trend with age, tonic vergence did exhibit a small but consistent convergent increase after 40 years of age. Thus, tonic vergence showed a slight change, possibly of a motor adaptive nature, concurrent with increasing age and the development of clinical presbyopia.