Brain Disconnect When You Blink? Scientists have discovered that parts of the brain are temporarily “turned off” when a person blinks.  Blinking ‘turns off’ parts of the brain, study finds:

According to an article published in the scientific journal Current Biology, a team from University College, London, discovered that the brain turns off parts of the visual system with each blink. The researchers explained that this fact would show why people do not notice that they are blinking and they have the impression of an “uninterrupted view of the world”. A blink lasts between 100 and 150 milliseconds.  Automatically, a person blinks between ten and 15 times to hydrate and oxygenate the cornea. During blinking, there is no transmission of visual information and there is no light.  But people are not aware that everything went dark momentarily.

Does Your Brain Disconnect When You Blink
Does Your Brain Disconnect When You Blink

The research used a device created especially to assess the effects on the brain. Made with a fiber optic cable, it was placed in the mouths of volunteers who were wearing light-proof glasses and underwent an MRI scan of the brain. the eyeball of each of them, using a red light, which made the light hitting the volunteers’ retinas constant even when they blinked.  The scientists were able to measure the effects of blinking on brain activity, independent of momentary eye closure. the person becomes aware of visual events or objects.” We would notice immediately if the world suddenly went dark, especially if it happened every few seconds.

But we rarely notice when we blink, even though this act causes a similar reduction in the amount of light entering the eye, and this gives us an uninterrupted world view,” said Davina Bristow, from the University College Institute of Neurology, who led the research.

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