ABSTRACT High‐speed photography of eyeblinks in 4 subjects provided displacement and velocity time functions. The results from dynamic measurements made with a mechanical transducer connected physically to the upper eyelid gave estimates of the passive spring constant (K p = 1.5 gm,/mm) and the passive viscosity (B p = 0.09 gm r ‐ sec/mm) of the eyelid. Noting the similarity between the reciprocal‐innervation mechanisms in the eyelid and the eye‐movement systems, a mathematical eyelid model was derived based on the well‐known eye‐movement model and using similar ideal mechanical‐element representations. The model‐simulation time course shows the essential characteristics of an eyeblink and suggests that the force program consists of reciprocally acting pulse forces during the downblink, and pulse‐step forces during the upblink. When 1 mm of lid displacement is equated with 5 deg of eyeball rotation and when the main sequences for lid movements and for time‐optimal saccadic eye movements are compared, the eyeblinks are not found to be time optimal for their various amplitudes.
Hung et al. (Sat,) studied this question.