Blink-related momentary activation of the default mode network while viewing videos
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences December 24, 2012 Tamami Nakano, Makoto Kato, Yusuke Morito et al. 246 citations
Spontaneous eyeblinks occur more often than needed to keep the eyes moist. While people watch videos, blinks tend to happen at natural breakpoints in attention. Brain scans show that immediately after a blink, activity briefly drops in the dorsal attention network and rises in the default-mode network, which is linked to internal thought. Physical blackouts of the video do not cause the same brain-network changes. This suggests that eyeblinks actively help disengage attention by momentarily shifting brain activity from external focus to internal processing.