Eye-blink rate predicts individual differences in pseudoneglect

Abstract

Most healthy individuals display a subtle spatial attentional bias, exhibiting relative inattention for stimuli on one side of the visual field, a phenomenon known as pseudoneglect. Prior work in animals and patients has implicated dopamine in spatial attention asymmetries. The current study therefore examined - in healthy individuals - the relationship between the attentional bias and spontaneous eye-blink rate (EBR), a putative measure of central dopaminergic function. We found that those individuals, who blinked more often under resting conditions, displayed greater preference for the right side of the visual display in a subsequent attention task. This finding may support the idea that the observed attentional bias in healthy individuals reflects asymmetries in dopaminergic circuits, and corroborates previous findings implicating dopamine in spatial attention.

Conflict acts as an implicit cost in reinforcement learning

“…Quantification of human striatal dopaminergic activities is challenging, yet we aimed to describe the robust pattern of effects caused by dopamine agonism using spontaneous eye blink rate, a controversial yet compelling candidate correlate of striatal dopaminergic tone [34][35][36][37] . Blink rates changed in a predictable inverted-U manner under cabergoline challenge as a function of baseline state, where high blink rate (putative high dopaminergic tone) under placebo predicted a diminishment under cabergoline (presumably lower dopaminergic tone) and vice versa for the other arm of the distribution.…”

“…Spontaneous eye blink rate is thought to be a non-specific correlate of striatal dopaminergic tone [34][35][36][37] . We thus sought to examine whether cabergoline, as a dopaminergic agonist, would cause an alteration in blink rate, and if this alteration was tied to the hypothesized dopaminergic mediation of the cost of conflict.…”

“…Previous studies have shown that low doses of D1 agonists decrease reward learning and consequently increase relative learning from punishment, whereas low doses of D2 antagonists have the opposite effect [30][31][32][33] . To track individual differences in the outcome of this pharmacological manipulation, we measured spontaneous eye blink rate, thought to be a correlate of striatal dopaminergic tone [34][35][36][37] .…”

Individual differences in emotion word processing: A diffusion model analysis

“…Thus, the availability of dopamine seems to be a reasonable factor underlying different emotional responses and individual differences in emotion processing. A psychophysiological measure of central dopaminergic activity is the rate of spontaneous eye blinks (blinks; Depue, Luciana, Arbisi, Collins, & Leon, 1994;Karson, 1983;Slagter, Davidson, & Tomer, 2010). Over the nigrostriatal pathway, dopamine is known to activate basal ganglia that in turn are associated with locomotor activity (Gerfen, 2009).…”

“…Over the nigrostriatal pathway, dopamine is known to activate basal ganglia that in turn are associated with locomotor activity (Gerfen, 2009). Heightened levels of dopamine in the striatum are therefore assumed to lead to increased motor activity (Beninger, 1983) that is mirrored in an increased blink rate (Karson, 1983;Slagter et al, 2010). While a healthy person blinks about 20 times per minute, people suffering from Parkinson's disease, which is characterized by low levels of dopamine, blink only about four times per minute.…”