The effect of daily transient +4 D positive lens wear on the inhibition of myopia in the tree shrew.

The effect of daily transient +4 D positive lens wear on the inhibition of myopia in the tree shrew.

McBrien NA, Arumugam B, Metlapally S.

Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria

Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2012 

This 2012 article studied the impact of wearing +4 lens in the tree shrew.  
Wearing a strong (-9.5) lens induced -10.8 myopia.  When the tree shrews were given a break from the minus lenses for an hour a day, a lower amount of myopia was induced.  When they wore a +4.00 lens for an hour a day (even if the time was divided in 30 minute shifts), they had a much smaller amount of induced myopia.  If the human eye works the same way, plus lens wear, even for an hour a day, might slow progression of myopia in children.


From the text:
"Daily intermittent +4 D positive lens wear effectively inhibits experimentally-induced myopia and may prove a viable approach for preventing myopia progression in children."


Abstract:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22323488


And this is what a tree shrew looks like:
http://ntopt.opt.uab.edu/comet/vision.htm