Suppression of the blackout due to blinks

Abstract An eyeblink causes an almost complete occlusion of light entering the eye. Yet people scarcely notice their blinks and the subjective visual world remains continuous and stable. We first duplicated the optical effect of a blink with an appropriate decrement in the illumination of a Ganzfeld. Viewed with eyes open, this momentary dimming seemed much stronger than the physically equal one produced by lid closure during a real blink. We then found that subjective equality with the real blink could be attained when the open eyes viewed a decrement of reduced magnitude and duration. We infer that a voluntary blink is accompanied by a suppression that fills in the blackout that would otherwise be perceived.