## 2 Materials and Methods
### Data Analysis  
Custom design of the instrument facilitated recording the dynamic response of the cornea and sclera before, throughout, and after the air-puff stimulus is applied to the cornea apex. To provide more advanced analysis of the cornea displacement, corresponding pressure values (generated within the chamber) were collected and, in further steps, recalculated into force values. After segmentation of all interfaces of interest (temporal displacement of both cornea surfaces and the back of the sclera surface; cf. Figure 2C), optical distances measured by OCT were mapped to geometrical ones by correcting for the refractive index of the cornea \(n=1.389\)[7]. Temporal evolution of the central corneal thickness (CCT) was determined as a difference between anterior and posterior cornea surface profiles. We further analyzed CCT before air-puff activation (CCT\({}_{\text{bef}}\)) and during maximum displacement amplitude (CCT\({}_{\text{max}}\)). To isolate the dynamic response of the cornea (corneal displacement in Figure 3A) from the eye retraction, we subtracted scleral displacement profiles from the cornea profiles. Figure 3: Quantitative analysis of the corneal dynamics from the acquired M-scans. (**A**) Correction of the corneal response imaged by OCT. The red curve represents the measured corneal deformation, adjusted for eye retraction visualized by scleral displacement (blue curve). Key parameters include maximum amplitude corneal apex displacement (MAD), maximum eye retraction (MER), and the phases of the response: loading (L) and recovery (R). (**B**) Corneal apex velocity profile. The maximum corneal velocity during the loading phase (CV\({}_{\text{L}}\)) and recovery phase (CV\({}_{\text{R}}\)) are shown, along with the time interval between velocity extrema (\(\Delta\)v\({}_{\text{v}}\)). (**C**) Corneal response time (CRT) presented as interval between time points when amplitude reaches 10% for corneal displacement (green y axis) and force applied on the cornea (right black y axis). (**D**) Force-displacement hysteresis loop. The hysteresis is characterized by the slope (S) of the loading curve, determined between 10% and 90% of the maximum corneal displacement, and the hysteresis area (HA), representing the energy dissipation during the corneal deformation cycle. The maximum apex displacement (MAD) and maximum eye retraction (MER) were extracted accordingly from segmented temporal profiles of the cornea and the sclera, respectively (Figure 3A). We identified two distinct phases in the displacement profiles: loading phase (L in Figure 3A), representing time span from the beginning of the air-puff stimulus to the maximum displacement, and recovery phase (R in Figure 3A), corresponding to the time span from maximum displacement to the instant when the cornea apex reaches its initial axial position. Later, we determined the velocity of the cornea surface by calculating time derivative of the cornea displacement profile. From this signal, the maximum velocity was extracted for the loading phase (CV\({}_{\text{L}}\)) and the recovery phase (CV\({}_{\text{R}}\)). The time interval between those velocity peaks was also measured (\(\Delta\)tv), as presented in Figure 3B. The time required for the cornea to respond to the air-puff stimulus was evaluated. Corneal response time (CRT in Figure 3C) was defined as the interval between the moment when the air-puff force reached 10% of its maximum amplitude and the moment when the corneal displacement reached 10% of MAD. The corneal response to the air-puff stimulus differs between the loading and recovery phases. To characterize this response, the air-puff-induced force F(t) was plotted against corneal surface displacement (hysteresis curve), as shown in Figure 3D. The relation between the signal from the pressure sensor and force was used to calculate F(t) [11]. The difference in corneal movement between the loading and recovery phases was quantified using the hysteresis area (HA).