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Every few seconds, our eyelids automatically shutter and our eyeballs roll back in their sockets. So why doesn't blinking plunge us into intermittent darkness and light?
New research led by UC Berkeley shows that the brain works extra hard to stabilize our vision despite our fluttering eyes.
[...] In a study published today in the online edition of the journal Current Biology, they found that when we blink, our brain repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused on what we're viewing.
When our eyeballs roll back in their sockets during a blink, they don't always return to the same spot when we reopen our eyes. This misalignment prompts the brain to activate the eye muscles to realign our vision, said study lead author Gerrit Maus, an assistant professor of psychology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Target Displacements during Eye Blinks Trigger Automatic Recalibration of Gaze Direction. Current Biology, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.029
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 27 2017, @02:01AM
I guess I have some kind of brain disorder. Every time I blink I see black for a second. I guess my brain doesn't do that "processing". Possibly I lack some sort of gene. It doesn't get in the way of my life. I can easily ignore the black moments, but unlike things like the blind spot, my brain is not "filling in" the darkness. (i.e., no matter how hard I try, I cannot see my blind spot, and it always is filled in, but if I focus I can easily see blinks, even if day to day I ignore them.)
(Score: 2, Informative) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Friday January 27 2017, @03:40AM
That is about how much I see blinks as well, and I suspect most people.
I see a lot of flicker if I blink deliberately quickly, for example.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday January 27 2017, @03:55AM
I can see blinks if I'm paying attention to them. Looks kind of like a black flash (slightly brighter after the blink, presumably as the iris adjusts). But I'm ridiculously aware of everything my body does, to the point that my doctor thinks I'm a freak. Might be not that you've got something missing, but that you're hyperaware.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Friday January 27 2017, @07:24AM
So you see black every few seconds throughout the day? Because if you pay attention you see lots of things that are normally calculated away by your brain. For example, if I want, I can clearly see that my eyes deliver different images, which are misaligned at any distance other than where I focus. But in normal everyday life, my brain calculates that away; I'm not constantly distracted by it. Also, when I think of it, I clearly notice the nose in my field of view (on different sides for the two eyes). But when not explicitly thinking of it, the nose "disappears" completely from my perception.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday January 27 2017, @07:18PM
But when not explicitly thinking of it, the nose "disappears" completely from my perception.
I knew someone who broke her nose and was distracted for weeks because it wasn't in quite the right place in her visual field any more. She eventually got used to it, but it took a while.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 27 2017, @07:27AM
"day to day I ignore them". That's what the publication is about. You CAN ignore them, because the brain does a great job of adjusting what is actually being sent by the eye.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Friday January 27 2017, @04:19PM
I find that happens to me when I am tired, especially after a long period of coding (staring at the screen). I actually see the black of the blink.
Not sure if my brain is too tired to do the processing, or my eyes are too tired and blink slower than usual.
Get some other effects from time to time as well, like everything becoming wavy. It is kinda trippy, but also a good signal that I should have a long rest away from computer screens.
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Friday January 27 2017, @08:53PM
When I have been up for 16 hours, things start getting desaturated and grainy.