All articles tagged with #blinking
Originally Published 27 days ago — by ScienceAlert
A Canadian study found that people blink less when listening to speech, especially in noisy environments, suggesting blinking is linked to cognitive effort and attention, and could potentially be used to assess mental workload in the future.
Originally Published 5 months ago — by HuffPost UK
A TikTok tip suggests blinking rapidly for 60 seconds to help fall asleep by tiring the eyes and tricking the brain into sleep mode, supported by studies indicating blinking acts as a brain reset and distraction. Additional sleep tips include morning light exposure and avoiding clock-watching during wakefulness, emphasizing a relaxed attitude towards sleep to prevent anxiety.
Originally Published 1 year ago — by Newsweek
A study from the University of Rochester reveals that blinking not only keeps our eyes moist but also aids in processing visual information by providing the brain with information about the overall big picture of a visual scene. When we blink, the movement of the eyelid alters light patterns, creating a different kind of visual signal for the brain. This finding reinforces the idea that our vision is a combination of sensory input and motor activity, and adds to the growing body of evidence showing that the visual system is sensitive to temporal changes and uses them to represent spatial information.
Originally Published 1 year ago — by Neuroscience News
A study from the University of Rochester reveals that blinking plays a critical role in visual perception by reshaping how visual information is processed, contrary to the common belief that it only helps keep the eyes moist. The research indicates that blinks are an active part of how we see, enhancing our ability to perceive the overall 'big picture' by modulating visual input to the retina and creating different luminance signals that aid in processing visual scenes. This challenges the traditional view of visual perception as a mostly passive process and suggests that vision, like other senses, involves a combination of sensory input and motor activity.
Originally Published 1 year ago — by ScienceAlert
A new study from the University of Rochester shows that blinking actually boosts vision by increasing the power of retinal stimulation, despite the brief interruptions in vision caused by blinking. High-resolution eye-tracking revealed that blinks modulate the intensity of light falling on the retina, enhancing sensitivity and reformatting visual information. This research challenges the common assumption that blinks impair visual processing and suggests that blinking serves a beneficial purpose in shaping our vision.
Originally Published 2 years ago — by Livescience.com
Mudskippers, a subfamily of fish that live both on land and in the water, are the only fish that can blink, and they evolved this ability independently from our ancestors — a concept known as convergent evolution. Scientists think that blinking evolved in land animals when they made the transition from the oceans roughly 375 million years ago. Therefore, studying this example of convergent evolution has offered clues as to how our primordial ancestors first took to Earth's shores.
Originally Published 2 years ago — by ScienceAlert
Scientists are studying mudskippers, an amphibious fish that blinks its bulbous eyes, to understand how blinking emerged from the water with our ancestors. The ancestors of modern land tetrapods crawled out of the water some 375 million years ago, necessitating some pretty dramatic physical adaptations, from locomotion to sensory perception. One thing we observe in almost all land tetrapods, but not closely related aquatic animals, is blinking, suggesting that the behavior emerged as part of the suite of land-dweller adaptations.
Originally Published 2 years ago — by Inverse
Researchers have studied mudskippers to understand how the first animals to leave the oceans and wander onto shore would have had to figure out how to blink. Mudskippers are one of the few fish that can survive outside of water for extended periods of time thanks to their amphibian-like adaptations. By studying mudskippers, the researchers say that there’s an opportunity to understand how tetrapods may have evolved to blink millions of years ago in a separate yet similar way. The mudskipper appears to have rearranged its muscles in order to pop its eyes in and out, hinting that ancient tetrapods may have evolved in a similar way.
Originally Published 2 years ago — by National Geographic
Researchers studying mudskippers, an amphibious fish, have found clues as to why humans evolved to blink. While it's known that blinking keeps our eyes moist and protected, the evolution of the phenomenon has been less understood. The study offers insights into the importance of eye protection and moisture for survival.
Originally Published 2 years ago — by Phys.org
Mudskippers, an amphibious fish, have evolved a blinking behavior that serves many of the same purposes as human blinking, providing clues as to how and why blinking might have evolved during the transition to life on land in our own ancestors. The study shows that blinking may be among the suite of traits that evolved to allow the transition to life on land in tetrapods. The researchers analyzed the behavior with high-speed videos and compared the anatomy of mudskippers with that of a closely related water-bound fish that doesn't blink.