Not looking while leaping: the linkage of blinking and saccadic gaze shifts

Many vertebrates generate blinks as a component of saccadic gaze shifts. We investigated the nature of this linkage between saccades and blinking in normal humans. Activation of the orbicularis oculi, the lid closing muscle, EMG occurred with 97% of saccadic gaze shifts larger than 33°. The blinks typically began simultaneously with the initiation of head and/or eye movement. To minimize the possibility that the blinks accompanying saccadic gaze shifts were reflex blinks evoked by the wind rushing across the cornea and eyelashes as the head and eyes turned, the subjects made saccadic head turns with their eyes closed. In this condition, orbicularis oculi EMG activity occurred with all head turns greater than 17° in amplitude and the EMG activity began an average of 39.3 ms before the start of the head movement. Thus, one component of the command for large saccadic gaze shifts appears to be a blink. We call these blinks gaze-evoked blinks. The linkage between saccadic gaze shifts and blinking is reciprocal. Evoking a reflex blink prior to initiating a voluntary saccadic gaze shift dramatically reduces the latency of the initiation of the head movement.