Elsevier

Vision Research

Volume 21, Issue 7, 1981, Pages 1075-1079
Vision Research

Suppression of the blackout due to blinks

https://doi.org/10.1016/0042-6989(81)90012-2Get rights and content

Abstract

An eyeblink causes an almost complete occlusion of light entering the eye. Yet people scarcely notice their blinks and the subjective visual world remains continuous and stable. We first duplicated the optical effect of a blink with an appropriate decrement in the illumination of a Ganzfeld. Viewed with eyes open, this momentary dimming seemed much stronger than the physically equal one produced by lid closure during a real blink. We then found that subjective equality with the real blink could be attained when the open eyes viewed a decrement of reduced magnitude and duration. We infer that a voluntary blink is accompanied by a suppression that fills in the blackout that would otherwise be perceived.

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Cited by (44)

  • Blink- and saccade-related suppression effects in early visual areas of the human brain: Intracranial EEG investigations during natural viewing conditions

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    But since a significant gamma decrease before blink onset is only observed for this particular case (τpre = [−0.5 −0.25] s), we still have doubts about an active suppression mechanism for blinks as opposed to saccades. The observed differences between saccades and blinks in terms of the related gamma power changes in early visual areas could also be due to the fact that the visual blackout caused by blinks can be perceived (although its duration is clearly underestimated (Riggs et al., 1981)) while the retinal smear caused by saccadic eye movements cannot be perceived. However, both saccades and blinks were also accompanied by a strong decrease in relative gamma power during TW-III (50–150 ms after saccade onset; 50–250 ms after blink onset).

  • Target Displacements during Eye Blinks Trigger Automatic Recalibration of Gaze Direction

    2017, Current Biology
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    We definitely do not perceive the world to transiently disappear every time we blink. Retinal responses during eye blinks are suppressed by the visual system [3–6, 12], as demonstrated, for example, in experiments that stimulated the retina via high-intensity light flashes through the roof of the mouth to bypass the occlusion of the pupil by the eyelid [3]. This active suppression of the retinal transients associated with lid closure and opening reduces the disruption of visual input, although other mechanisms may play a role in reducing the apparent duration of the interruption [13].

  • Two distinct neural effects of blinking on human visual processing

    2005, NeuroImage
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    Both voluntary and spontaneous blinks have highly stereotyped kinematics. Each blink lasts between 200 and 400 ms with the pupil being fully occluded by the eyelid for 100–150ms (Riggs et al., 1981; Tsubota et al., 1996; VanderWerf et al., 2003; Volkmann et al., 1980), causing a reduction in retinal illumination of approximately 2 log units (Volkmann et al., 1980). In addition to this loss of visual input, visual sensitivity is actively reduced during voluntary and involuntary eye-blinks, an effect known as blink suppression (Manning et al., 1983; Riggs et al., 1981; Volkmann, 1986; Volkmann et al., 1980, 1982).

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Department of Psychology, Clark Science Center, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063, U.S.A.

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