A method is presented to address quantitative assessment of visual contrast sensitivity in a subject, where the method comprises the steps of: (1) presenting at least one scene to the subject on a display, the scene comprising a plurality of elements and a background; (2) modulating the contrast of at least one element; (3) receiving feedback from the subject via at least one input device; (4) quantitatively refining the received feedback relative to the scene; (5) adjusting the contrast relative to accuracy of the quantitatively refined feedback; (6) calculating a critical threshold parameter for the subject; and (7) recording a critical threshold parameter onto a tangible computer readable medium. An apparatus for quantitative assessment of visual contrast sensitivity of a subject comprising a display device, an input device, a control device, and a tangible computer readable medium. In its simplest sense, quantitative assessment profile of visual contrast sensitivity by psychophysical responses is generated on a tangible computer readable medium.