Consideration of Three Types of Spontaneous Eyeblink Activity in Normal Humans: during Reading and Video Display Terminal Use, in Primary Gaze, and while in Conversation

Abstract

It is inappropriate to simply state a value for spontaneous eyeblink rate because it is so dependent on experimental conditions. It is further proposed that reports of SEBR measures should be prefixed by these experimental conditions, namely reading-SEBR, primary gaze-SEBR (in silence) and conversational-SEBR.

Comparative study of the blinking time between young adult and adult video display terminal users in indoor environment

“…This finding corroborates the values encountered in the researched literature, which presents the blinking frequency in conversation situations between 10 and 20 blinks per minute (22)(23)(24) .…”

“…Blinking frequency in young adults and presbyopic adults decreased 2.02 times and 2.13 times, respectively, during VDT reading when compared to conversation situations. The decrease in blinking frequency during VDT situations corroborates the findings published in the researched literature (21)(22)(23) .…”

Spontaneous eye blinks are entrained by finger tapping

“…Analysis of blink rate and interblink-interval distributions revealed different types of blink patterns (Zaman & Doughty, 1997;Doughty, 2001). Doughty (2001) promoted the idea that blinks are controlled by a central pacemaker, which resides in the basal ganglia. Freudenthaler, Heuf, Kadner, and Schlote (2003) provided further support to this view.…”

Blinking and Driving: the Influence of Saccades and Cognitive Workload

“…3 Conversely, spontaneous blinks are mainly dependent on cognitive processes, that is, appear to be regulated by a central pacemaker highly sensitive to the attentional demands and cognitive workload of the concurrent visual task. 4,5 In effect, previous authors, albeit noting a considerable inter-subject variability in the frequency of spontaneous blinking, 6 have reported mean AE SD blink rates of 7.9 AE 3.3 blinks/ minute while reading, 14.5 AE 3.3 blinks/minute in silent primary gaze and 21.5 AE 6 blinks/minute during a conversation. 4 In addition, a similar reduction in blinking frequency with increasing task complexity has been evidenced in relation to computer use, a field in which spontaneous blinking has been extensively studied in order to understand and alleviate the symptomatology associated with the traditionally known as ''computer vision syndrome''.…”