Racing drivers blink at the same points when going round a track

Various racing drivers blink at roughly the same point in the circuit. This may reflect a synchronized mental state when the driver is concentrating on controlling the vehicle. Blinking lubricates our eyes, but it’s unclear how it relates to other aspects of our health. Further study of this could help us better understand conditions such as Parkinson’s disease in which the frequency of blinking changes.

We usually blink 12 times a minute, and each blink lasts about a third of a second. How often we blink is related to the amount of attention we give to a particular task, and some people blink less when they’re focused on a screen.

“Many people think that blinking is just to moisten the eyes, but blinking a few times a minute is enough for that purpose,” says Nishi of NTT Communication Science Laboratories in Atsugi. Ryota Sono says:

To study how driving affects blinking, Nishizono and his colleagues examined three professional male drivers working for formula racing teams. The drivers completed 304 practice laps at the three domestic circuits of Fuji, Suzuka and Sugo. A helmet-mounted binocular eye tracker recorded blinks and counted by machine learning.

Analysis of the data revealed that although the drivers blinked at different frequencies, they blinked at roughly the same points on each circuit, with blink frequency decreasing as they drove faster.

According to Nishizono, the team was initially surprised that the blinking patterns of the three drivers were consistent, but because the steering patterns at each circuit were similar, the driver’s cognitive state, or perhaps blinking, to some extent. They are expected to be in sync.

“There are many factors that influence blink timing, and they are not fully understood,” says Omar Marlou of University College London. A better understanding of blinking could lead to more knowledge about conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, which is associated with reduced blinking, and blepharospasm, which is a convulsive eyelid or uncontrolled blinking, he said.