June 9, 2003
A: FROM MENTOR JOAN LUSK IN RI
Try entering 'sneeze eyes open' in Google, and just read the brief
excerpts that pop up before going to those sites. Some say you can't
sneeze with your eyes open; other says that some people _do_ sneeze
with their eyes open - the eye-closing reflex can be missing or
overcome. The search revealed an "urban legend" - that if you sneeze
with your eyes open your eyes will pop out! that's clearly nonsense
- the eyes are safely retained in their sockets, and the air pressure
of a sneeze isn't even connected to any space up behind the eyes.
the next time I feel a sneeze coming on I'm going to try to keep my
eyes open and see if I can do it.
********************
A: FROM MENTOR KRISTIN TAGHON IN IL
I read this at : http://www.geocities.com/enchantedForest/Dell/1959/facts.html

You don't have a choice! Your eyes close automatically when you sneeze. When
you're about to sneeze, a nerve in your nose sends a message to your brain. Your
brain makes your lids shut, forming an airtight shield over the eyes. It's a
good thing your eyes close. When you sneeze, you push air out of your body with
great force: up to 100 mph. If you kept your eyes open, you could strain the
muscles holding your eyes in place. Closing your eyes also keeps them safe from
germs your sneeze sprays out. AH-CHOOO!

I also read THIS at:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec97/874612078.Me.r.html
Area: Medicine
Posted By: Robert West, Post-doc/Fellow
Date: Thu Sep 18 12:47:56 1997
Area of science: Medicine
ID: 873999436.Me

Message:

Dear Brianne,
Have you tried using your fingers?

Although I can't completely rule out the possiblity that someone might be able
to train themselves to sneeze with their eyes
open, I am inclined to think you wouldn't be able to do it.

It's not too difficult to use conditioning techniques to modify reflexes, in the
sense of making them stronger or weaker, or easier
or harder to evoke. It's much more difficult, and in some cases impossible, to
change the reflex itself (add or remove a
component). This is particularly true of simple reflexes.

However, a sneeze is a pretty complex reflex. (You can find several posts that
describe it in more detail in the Mad Scientist's
archive; just search under "sneeze". ) Since it is neurally complex,
theoretically it may be possible to use something called
instrumental conditioning to modify the reflex.

Instrumental conditioning is essentially learning that a particular behavior
predicts a particular outcome. Here's an example.
Normally, rats don't go around pressing levers. However, if a lever is around, a
rat may, for some reason, press it once in
awhile. If the rat is hungry, and you give him food every time he presses the
lever, pretty soon he'll be pressing the lever alot
(at least until he's not hungry anymore). The rat has been instrumentally
conditioned to press the lever.

One thing you can do with instrumental conditioning is shape behavior. For
example, when the rat was first learning that
moving the lever gets him food, you might reward him if he only touches the
lever. After he begins touching the lever regularly,
you might require him to move it a tiny bit to get food. By changing what the
rat has to do to get his reward a bit at a time,
eventually you can get the rat to push the lever very far, or maybe in a
particular direction. You have shaped his behavior.

You probably see where this is leading. You might be able to use a similar
procedure to shape a sneeze. It would be tough
though. First, you need to have a way to reliably get yourself to sneeze. Then
you need a way to monitor how much your eyes
close, and hope that sometimes they don't close quite as much as other times, so
you have something to work with at the
beginning. Then you need to find some sort of reinforcement that will tend to
pressure the behavior to change (a little electric
shock every time your eyes close completely comes to mind!). Finally, you have
to hope that the form of a sneeze is something
that can be modified by learning. In any event, it would take an awful lot of
time and energy.

I think you're better off just using your fingers.