Blink
From Free net encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Blink (disambiguation).
Image:Blinking.gif Blinking is a function of the eye, with each blink typically taking between 100 and 150 milliseconds from start to finish. Blinking is an essential function. It keeps your eyes healthy. When an eye becomes dry, closing the eyelid and opening it again rapidly can help to spread moisture across the surface of the eye and ease discomfort. Blinking also serves the purpose of helping to remove irritants which have landed in the eye. Blinking may allow the lens mechanism at the front of the eye to re-focus in response to any change in the length of the eyeball.
Women and men do not differ in their rates of spontaneous blinking (M.J. Doughty, 2002, Optom Vis Sci), averaging around 10 blinks per minute in a laboratory setting. However, there is an established gender difference in inhibition of the startle response blink: men (and lesbian women) manifest greater inhibition of the reflex than heterosexual women (Q. Rahman et al., 2003, Behavioral Neuroscience). When an animal (usually human) chooses to blink only one eye as a signal to another in a social setting (a form of body language), it is known as winking.