Abstract
The purpose of blinks is to keep the eyes hydrated and to protect them. Blinks are rarely noticed by the subject as blink-induced alterations of visual input are blanked out without jeopardizing the perception of visual continuity, features blinks share with saccades. Although not perceived, the blink-induced disconnection from the visual environment leads to a loss of information. Therefore there is critical need to minimize it. Here we demonstrate evidence for a new type of eye movement serving a distinct oculomotor demand, namely the resetting of eye torsion, likewise inevitably causing a loss of visual information. By integrating this eye movement into blinks, the inevitable down times of vision associated with each of the two behaviors are synchronized and the overall downtime minimized.
Highlights
We normally blink around 15 to 20 times per minute to hydrate the eyes and to protect them from potentially harmful agents (Evinger, 1995; Evinger et al, 1991)
In this study we have demonstrated the existence of a distinct, hitherto unknown type of eye movement
It helps to avoid the accumulation of excessive eye torsion, building up in response to torsional optic flow by time and again resetting the torsional deviation
Summary
We normally blink around 15 to 20 times per minute to hydrate the eyes and to protect them from potentially harmful agents (Evinger, 1995; Evinger et al, 1991). Voluntary saccades interfere with vision and the fast resetting movements that are part of oculomotor reflexes that stabilize the visual background One of these reflexes is the torsional optokinetic nystagmus (tOKN) (Farooq et al, 2004). If the image drifts away from this central position, our eyes make small involuntary ‘resetting’ movements to counteract the drifting Given that these movements would compromise our vision much like saccades do, Khazali et al wondered whether the brain might synchronize them with blinks as well. In view of the tight interaction of voluntary saccades and blinks we expected that the involuntary fast phases of the tOKN might be synchronized with blinks in order to minimize the overall down time of the visual system. Rather than combining fast phases with blinks, the oculomotor system deploys a novel type of resetting movement which is qualitatively different from fast phases
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