Abstract
The timing and frequency of spontaneous eyeblinking is thought to be influenced by ongoing internal cognitive or neurophysiological processes, but how precisely these processes influence the dynamics of eyeblinking is still unclear. This study aimed to better understand the functional role of eyeblinking during cognitive processes by investigating the temporal pattern of eyeblinks during the performance of attentional tasks. The timing of spontaneous eyeblinks was recorded from 28 healthy subjects during the performance of both visual and auditory versions of the Stroop task, and the temporal distributions of eyeblinks were estimated in relation to the timing of stimulus presentation and vocal response during the tasks. We found that the spontaneous eyeblink rate increased during Stroop task performance compared with the resting rate. Importantly, the subjects (17/28 during the visual Stroop, 20/28 during the auditory Stroop) were more likely to blink before a vocal response in both tasks (150–250 msec) and the remaining subjects were more likely to blink soon after the vocal response (200–300 msec), regardless of the stimulus type (congruent or incongruent) or task difficulty. These findings show that spontaneous eyeblinks are closely associated with responses during the performance of the Stroop task on a short time scale and suggest that spontaneous eyeblinks likely signal a shift in the internal cognitive or attentional state of the subjects.
Highlights
A large number of human studies have shown that the spontaneous eyeblink rate (EBR) varies with changes in the cognitive state [1]
We investigated the temporal patterns of eyeblinks during the performance of visual and auditory Stroop tasks; in particular, we estimated the timing of eyeblinks with respect to the timing of stimulus presentation and vocal response
Because our Stroop design involves multiple cognitive processes in a short trial, we focused on two discrete internal events, the stimulus onset and the vocal response, in analyzing the relationship between the timing of eyeblinks and cognitive processes
Summary
A large number of human studies have shown that the spontaneous eyeblink rate (EBR) varies with changes in the cognitive state [1]. EBRs increase during the silent recall of both verbal and pictorial stimuli, whereas they decrease when attending to passive verbal or pictorial stimuli [3]. During spontaneous conversation, which requires no memorization, the EBR doubles, on average, compared with that during quiet rest. The EBR declines during the performance of tasks that require sustained visual attention, such as the visual tracking of moving stimuli [3,6], the recollection of numbers in a working memory task, or while daydreaming [7]
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