The eyes have it when the mind wanders

YOU can tell when someone is being blinking rude and not listening by looking at their eyes, scientists have shown.

A study suggests that when a person blinks it is a sign that their mind is wandering.

Blinking is thought to set up tiny physical barriers that help to shut off the outside world. Researchers in Canada were inspired by studies showing that when attention falters, parts of the brain that process external influences are less active.

"We thought, if that's the case, maybe we'd see that the body would start to do things to prevent the brain from receiving external information," said Dr Daniel Smilek, a neuroscientist from the University of Waterloo in Ontario. "The simplest thing that might happen is you might close your eyes more."

To test the theory, 15 volunteers were asked to read from a book on a computer screen, while a sensor tracked their eye movements.

The volunteers were found to blink more when their minds were wandering.