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[M]editators who have done a three-year retreat in the Tibetan tradition had less habituation of eye blinks when they heard loud bursts of noise.
I have had a related experience this last year, which is that large noises that used to startle me often don’t anymore.”
I don’t think I understand—does less habituation not imply that they’re continuing to show a startle response even with repeated exposure to the noise?
I guess? But if the baseline level of eyeblinks was atypically low in this population you’d think they’d have mentioned it, that would be quite an important finding. Since they haven’t, I assume they’re blinking about as much as anyone else, and that doesn’t reduce as much as ordinary folk with repeated exposure. I’m not sure what to make of that