Basically, the brain memory is responsible for the fact that blinking happens almost unnoticed. Because a part of the brain stores all previously seen impressions while we have closed our eyes for a moment. When the eyes are opened again, it merges the old and new information into a fluid sequence of images, so that the darkness is forgotten.
As scientists from Göttingen found out in a study with epilepsy patients in the USA, the region of the frontal lobe is particularly important for the process.
The test subjects were shown a grid pattern of dots, in which they were asked to indicate whether they were arranged horizontally, diagonally or vertically in their opinion. They were then given another grid to repeat the task. If the orientation was the same for the subjects, it was because they were unconsciously using the brain image memory content of the first task. With the help of electrodes in the brain, the team was able to measure the activity of the nerve cells and finally localize the image memory.