title: Spontaneous eye-blink rates and dopaminergic systems.
abstract: A series of studies demonstrated a possible relationship between eye-blink rate and central dopamine activity. First, apomorphine and other dopamine agonists acutely increased blink rate in monkeys, an effect blocked by sulpiride. Secondly, parkinsonian patients with levodopa-induced dyskinesia exhibited twice the mean blink rate (21 blinks/min) of other parkinsonians (11 blinks/min, P less than 0.002) whereas the more symptomatic of the nondyskinetic patients had a very slow rate (3 blinks/min, P less than 0.01). Thirdly, schizophrenic patients had an elevated mean blink (31 vs 23 blinks/min for normals, P less than 0.05) which was normalized by neuroleptic treatment. Thus, the correlation with central dopamine activity may also prove clinically useful in selected neuropsychiatric disorders.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001058:Apomorphine / Q000494:pharmacology; D001767:Blinking / Q000187:drug effects; D001971:Bromocriptine / Q000494:pharmacology; D003975:Diazepam / Q000494:pharmacology; D004298:Dopamine / Q000502:physiology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D013469:Sulpiride / Q000494:pharmacology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D001971:Bromocriptine; D013469:Sulpiride; D001058:Apomorphine; D003975:Diazepam; D004298:Dopamine