Endogenous eye blinks in preadolescents: relationship to information processing and performance.
Endogenous blinks--those occurring without apparent provocation--are regulated in adults with respect to the presentation, cognitive loading, and response demands of stimuli. This investigation determined the extent to which similar regulatory and response-related relationships were evident in preadolescents during a visual continuous performance task (CPT). As in adults, increased blink incidence on task, longer blink deferral following stimuli with greater cognitive loading, and blink-facilitated motor responses to imperative stimuli were observed. Reaction times significantly decreased when the button press (BP) occurred near (+/- 200 ms) blink onset and increased across the task period on blink-free but not blink-associated trials. More blinks occurred before motor responses in females, and a reaction time (RT) advantage for males on blink-free trials was maintained across blink-associated conditions. From these results, an interpretation is developed arguing that endogenous blinks are a meaningful and integral component of sensory-motor processing, indexing times of facilitated attentional and motor response capability.
Pivik
R T
RT
Departmetnt of Psychology, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 72202, USA. pivikterry@uams.edu
Dykman
R A
RA
D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time
D004298:Dopamine