Eyeblink patterns in simulated sports driving: The impact of driving performance, eyeblink rate, and individual factors

Expert drivers have highly consistent eye blink patterns on the track while driving during car sports. However, it is not well-understood how these patterns develop and what distinguishes them within and between individuals. We aimed to explore the impact of driving skills, relative performance, and individual factors on eyeblink frequency and spatial eyeblink timing, and further sought to determine how these factors influenced these measures. Previous research has utilized actual formula cars, but this study employed a sports driving simulator to recruit non-expert participants. The participants were instructed to drive free practice, full-speed, and slower (aiming for 110% of the full-speed pace in time) sessions for five laps and two sets each. During these sessions, the blinking and car control behaviors were simultaneously recorded. The reproducible eyeblink patterns were observed on the course, even by non-experts on the simulator. Furthermore, eyeblink frequency decreased within individuals during faster runs, while no correlation was found between eyeblink frequency and performance across individuals. No significant differences in eyeblink synchrony were evident between higher and lower performance both within and across individuals. Clustering analysis of all eye blink patterns using synchrony as the measurement revealed that the closest nodes were not those with similar performance or base eye blink frequency but those belonging to the same individual. These results suggest that individual characteristics are responsible for shaping the structure of eyeblink timing, while eyeblink rates are influenced by relative pace.