Why Do We Blink?

Why do we blink so much?
Researchers find that blinking plays a pivotal role in processing visual information-adding to a growing body of evidence revising our conventional views of vision.
The ordinary act of blinking takes up a surprising amount of our waking time. Humans, on average, spend a remarkable 3 to 8 percent of their awake time with their eyelids closed.
Given that blinks prevent an image of the external scene from forming on the retina, it’s a peculiar quirk of evolution that we spend so much time in this seemingly vulnerable state-especially considering that eye blinks occur more frequently than necessary just to keep our eyes well lubricated.
So, why is blinking important?
Researchers from the University of Rochester investigated the curious case of blinking and found that eye blinks aren’t just a mechanism to keep our eyes moist; blinks also play an important role in allowing our brains to process visual information. The researchers published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“By modulating the visual input to the retina, blinks effectively reformat visual information, yielding luminance signals that differ drastically from those normally experienced when we look at a point in the scene,” says Michele Rucci, a professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
In other words, a lot more happens in the blink of an eye than meets the eye.
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