Scientists discovered a new type of eye movement that is synchronized with blinking read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/691-scientists-discovered-a-new-type-of-eye-movement-that-is-synchronized-with-blinking

A team from the University of Tubingen in Germany assessed the movements of eye. They discovered a new type of eye movement that is synchronized with blinking, it helps to reset the eye when viewing a rotating object.

Study lead author Mohammad Khazali says, we were really surprised to discover this new type of eye movement and it was not what we had anticipated from the experiment. "We had expected to find that another, already well-known type of eye movement is synchronized to blinking."

Blinking creates an interruption in our visual perception. It serves an essential in the eye and may even provide the brain with small, frequent mental breaks.

The scientists investigate whether a reflexive, involuntary eye movement called torsional optokinetic nystagmus (tOKN) occurs at the same time as blinking. This reflex creates a break in the visual system so synchronizing them minimizes downtime.

Researchers studied the subject of eye movements and viewed a rotating pattern of dots. and realized that they twisted to follow the dots, they frequently reset, to avoid moving beyond the mechanical limits of the eye muscles.

This resetting was imperfect and the eyes gradually twisted until the muscles couldn't twist any more. This varied between subjects from three to eight degrees of rotation. Once they reached their maximum, the eyes reset so they were no longer twisted at all. This happened at the same time as blinking.

The scientists have called this unofficial movement blink-associated resetting movement (BARM).

This movement is determined how far the eyes have deviated from a neutral position.  It helps to reduce strain in the eyes as they move to assess the world around us.

Khazali says, the eye's sharpest vision is enabled by a spot on the light-sensitive sheet of the retina called fovea it needs to stay balanced to ensure objects of interest can be examine in an optimum way.

Previous findings have proved that blinking creates an interruption in our visual perception. It also serves an essential role in lubricating the eye and could possibly provide the brain with short, frequent mental breaks.