Learning to Blink Strategically Is Crucial to Performance in a Predictable Saccade Task and Varies Across the Lifespan

Humans blink their eyes 16-20 times each minute to spread tear film on the cornea, representing a substantial amount of waking time when one's eyes are closed. These spontaneous blinks are strategically timed to prioritize the processing of important visual input, balancing both stimulus characteristics and personal goals. Until now, the learning process underlying blink timing has not been investigated in detail. Here, we present video-based eye-tracking data from 703 healthy participants (aged 5-91 years, 470 females) performing a structured interleaved prosaccade/antisaccade task, in which we previously found that blinks are suppressed in anticipation of visual stimulus appearance [Pitigoi, I. C., Coe, B. C., Calancie, O. G., Brien, D. C., Yep, R., Riek, H. C., et al. Attentional modulation of eye blinking is already altered by sex, age, and task structure. eNeuro, 11, ENEURO.0296-23.2024, 2024]. Our goals are to understand (1) how participants modify their blink timing according to the temporal contingencies of the task, (2) whether the capacity to do so impacts performance, and (3) whether this pattern varies with age. We found evidence that participants quickly adapted their blink timing to minimize co-occurrence with task-relevant stimuli. Blink probability decreased in periods that would compromise antisaccade execution and increased when visual input was less critical. We also found significant differences in blink timing and in the rate of blink adaptation across the task for participants with low versus high error rates. Furthermore, the rate of blink adaptation increased gradually from childhood to early adulthood and then decreased with advanced age. This work supports a possible link between the regulation of blink behavior and lifespan changes in learning capacity and inhibitory control.