Yosuke Sakamoto^1,2,3, Yuki Murai^1,2; ¹National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, ²The University of Osaka, ³Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Visual input is frequently disrupted by saccades and blinks, yet our perception remains remarkably stable. To achieve such stability, visual sensitivity is transiently reduced around the time of these oculomotor events via predictive efference copy signals (saccadic/blink suppression; e.g., Burr, Morrone, & Ross, 1994; Volkmann, Riggs, & Moore, 1980; Wurtz, 2008). While saccadic suppression has been extensively investigated, much less is known about how eyeblinks shape ongoing visual perception. Here we report a blink-induced illusion in which a single visual flash presented shortly before a voluntary blink is perceived as two flashes. On each trial, a random-noise patch masked by a Gaussian annulus (peak radius = 2 dva, SD = 0.5 dva) was presented either once or twice, with each flash lasting 33 ms. Participants were instructed to voluntarily blink at various time points and then report the number of flashes they perceived. We found that a single flash was often reported as two when it was presented shortly before the blink. This illusion exhibited sharp temporal tuning, peaking at ~100 ms prior to blink onset and confined to a narrow temporal window of roughly 100 ms. To test whether mere visual interruption elicits this effect, we introduced an artificial-blink condition using shutter glasses. This illusion was absent under artificial blinks, highlighting the critical role of blink-related predictive efference copy signals in shaping perception. These findings suggest that a brief visual input gives rise to visual persistence in the underlying representation, and that a blink-induced predictive signal engaged prior to blink onset selectively attenuates part of this persistence, producing a bimodal temporal profile that is read out as two events. This illusion highlights eyeblinks, alongside saccades, as a potential active temporal filtering mechanism that may contribute to maintaining perceptual stability across oculomotor events.