Objective To analyze the characteristics and distribution of higher-order aberrations in myopia,and to study the correlation between higher-order aberrations and the anterior and posterior corneas and possible factors that affect it.Methods It was a cross-sectional study.108 normal patients,including 55 males and 53 females,were recruited in the Refractive Center of Tianjin Eye Hospital.The average age was 23.3±4.1 years (range 18 to 38 years).The mean spherical diopter was-5.81±2.19 D (range-1.38 to-12.50 D).Corneal aberration and thinnest corneal thickness were obtained with the Pentacam system.The results were analyzed with SPSS 13.0 software.Aberration data between the anterior cornea and posterior cornea was compared by a MannWhitney test.Spearman analysis was used to show the relationship between Zernike terms and related factors.Results The mean Zernike aberrations for the cornea tended to become progressively smaller as the order increased.Other higher-order coefficients were close to zero except for third-order and fourth-order aberrations.The posterior corneal RMS errors were much smaller than the anterior surface,and the anterior corneal RMS was compensated by the posterior cornea.Intraocular pressure (IOP) had a statistically significant relationship to RMS for 3rd-order and 6th-order aberrations of the anterior cornea,5th-order and 6th-order aberrations of the posterior cornea,and 3rd-order and 6th order aberrations of the entire cornea (r=0.217,0.248,0.269,0.210,0.222,0.282; P＜0.05).There was no statistically significant relationship between the thinnest corneal thickness and Zernike aberrations and there was no statistically significant difference in the higher-order aberration RMS values between males and females.Zernike terms were relatively symmetrical between right and left eyes.Conclusion Mean Zernike aberrations for the cornea in myopia tended to become progressively smaller with increasing order.The posterior corneal RMS errors were much smaller than for the anterior surface.The entire corneal RMS involved compensation of the anterior and by the posterior corneas.For higher-order aberrations,there were no significant differences between the left and right eyes; there was also no significant difference between genders.