A system for treating presbyopia in a visual system of a patient, the system comprising: a laser resculpting system for resculpting an eye of a patient; a processor coupled to the laser resculpting system, the processor configured: to determine for the patient's eye an accommodative trajectory representing the relationship between total accommodative power of the eye and pupil size; to anticipate, on the basis of data representing studies of the visual system responses of prior patients and/or measurements of the visual system response of the patient being treated to temporary refractive alteration, a modified visual response of the patient's visual system to a change in refractive optical characteristics; to generate using the anticipated modified visual response a refractive prescription defining prescriptive power as a function of pupil size to provide altered refractive optical characteristics that without the anticipated modified visual response would provide the patient's eye with a first near acuity and a first far acuity but which induce the anticipated modified visual response to provide the patient's eye with a second near acuity which is better than the first near acuity, and/or a second far acuity which is better than the first far acuity, such that presbyopia of the eye is mitigated; and to control the laser resculpting system to resculpt the eye to provide the altered optical characteristics. a laser resculpting system for resculpting an eye of a patient; a processor coupled to the laser resculpting system, the processor configured: to determine for the patient's eye an accommodative trajectory representing the relationship between total accommodative power of the eye and pupil size; to anticipate, on the basis of data representing studies of the visual system responses of prior patients and/or measurements of the visual system response of the patient being treated to temporary refractive alteration, a modified visual response of the patient's visual system to a change in refractive optical characteristics; to generate using the anticipated modified visual response a refractive prescription defining prescriptive power as a function of pupil size to provide altered refractive optical characteristics that without the anticipated modified visual response would provide the patient's eye with a first near acuity and a first far acuity but which induce the anticipated modified visual response to provide the patient's eye with a second near acuity which is better than the first near acuity, and/or a second far acuity which is better than the first far acuity, such that presbyopia of the eye is mitigated; and to control the laser resculpting system to resculpt the eye to provide the altered optical characteristics. to determine for the patient's eye an accommodative trajectory representing the relationship between total accommodative power of the eye and pupil size; to anticipate, on the basis of data representing studies of the visual system responses of prior patients and/or measurements of the visual system response of the patient being treated to temporary refractive alteration, a modified visual response of the patient's visual system to a change in refractive optical characteristics; to generate using the anticipated modified visual response a refractive prescription defining prescriptive power as a function of pupil size to provide altered refractive optical characteristics that without the anticipated modified visual response would provide the patient's eye with a first near acuity and a first far acuity but which induce the anticipated modified visual response to provide the patient's eye with a second near acuity which is better than the first near acuity, and/or a second far acuity which is better than the first far acuity, such that presbyopia of the eye is mitigated; and to control the laser resculpting system to resculpt the eye to provide the altered optical characteristics.