Spontaneous eye blinks are entrained by finger tapping.
We studied the mutual cross-talk between spontaneous eye blinks and continuous, self-paced unimanual and bimanual tapping. Both types of motor activities were analyzed with regard to their time-structure in synchronization-continuation tapping tasks which involved different task instructions, namely "standard" finger tapping (Experiment 1), "strong" tapping (Experiment 2) requiring more forceful finger movements, and "impulse-like" tapping (Experiment 3) where upward-downward finger movements had to be very fast. In a further control condition (Experiment 4), tapping was omitted altogether. The results revealed a prominent entrainment of spontaneous blink behavior by the manual tapping, with bimanual tapping being more effective than unimanual tapping, and with the "strong" and "impulse-like" tapping showing the largest effects on blink timing. Conversely, we found no significant effects of the tapping on the timing of the eye blinks across all experiments. The findings suggest a functional overlap of the motor control structures responsible for voluntary, rhythmic finger movements and eye blinking behavior.
Cong
D-K
DK
Institute of Communications Engineering, University of Federal Armed Forces Munich, Neubiberg 85579, Germany.
Sharikadze
M
M
Staude
G
G
Deubel
H
H
Wolf
W
W
D001767:Blinking; D004585:Electrooculography; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*