Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 39, Issue 12, 15 June 1996, Pages 1032-1038
Biological Psychiatry

Blink rate in children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3223(95)00315-0Get rights and content

Spontaneous blink rate, a noninvasive measure of dopamine function, was coded in 28 children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and in 47 normal children during a listening, a conversation, and a verbal recall task. Unlike the normal children, the children with ADHD did not increase their blink rates significantly across these three tasks. The ADHD subjects who were not on stimulants had significantly lower blink rates than the normal children during verbal recall. The ADHD subjects on stimulants, however, had significantly higher blink rates than the normal subjects during the listening task. These preliminary findings are discussed in light of their potential implications for theories on neurotransmitter dysfunction and arousal in ADHD.

References (55)

  • AchenbachTM

    Integrative guide for the 1991 CBCL/ 4–18 YSR and TRF profile

    (1991)
  • Aston-JonesG

    Behavioral functions of locus coeruleus derived from cellular attributes

    Physiol Psychology

    (1985)
  • Aston-JonesG et al.

    Discharge of noradrenergic locus coeruleus neurons in behaving rats and monkeys suggests a role in vigilance

  • BarkleyRA

    Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

    (1990)
  • BerridgeCW et al.

    Noradrenergic modulation of cognitive function: Clinical implications of anatomical, electrophysiological and behavioral studies in animal models

    Psychol Med

    (1993)
  • BlinO et al.

    Apomorphine-induced blinking and yawning in healthy volunteers

    Br J Clin Pharmacol

    (1990)
  • BonnetKA

    Neurobiological dissection of Tourette syndrome: A neurochemical focus on a human neuroanatomical model

  • CaplanR et al.

    Blink rate in childhood schizophrenia spectrum disorder

    Biol Psychiatry

    (1994)
  • CaplanR et al.

    The Kiddie Formal Thought Disorder Rating Scale (K-FTDS)

    Clinical assessment, reliability, and validity

    J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

    (1989)
  • CaplanR et al.

    Communication deficits in formal thought disorder and in schizophrenic children

    J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

    (1992)
  • CohenDJ et al.

    Clonidine ameliorates Gilles de la Tourette syndrome

    Arch Gen Psychiatry

    (1980)
  • ComblattBA et al.

    Positive and negative schizophrenia symptoms, attention, and information processing

    Schizophr Bull

    (1985)
  • CunninghamCE et al.

    A developmental-dose response analysis of the effects of methylphenidate on the peer interactions of attention deficit disordered boys

    J Child Psychol Psychiatry

    (1985)
  • DaughertyTK et al.

    Response perseveration, inhibitory control, and central dopaminergic activity in childhood behavior disorders

    J Gen Psychology

    (1993)
  • EllsworthJD et al.

    D1 and D2 dopamine receptors independently regulate spontaneous blink rate in the Vervet monkey

    J Pharmacol Exp Therapeut

    (1991)
  • FogartyC et al.

    Eye movements and blinks: Their relationship to higher cognitive processes

    Int J Psychophysiol

    (1989)
  • FooteSL et al.

    Nucleus locus coeruleus: New evidence of anatomical and physiological specificity

    Physiol Rev

    (1983)
  • GoldbergTE et al.

    Blink rate abnormalities in autistic and mentally retarded children: Relationship to dopaminergic activity

    J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

    (1987)
  • HallAA

    The origin and purpose of blinking

    Br J Opthalmol

    (1945)
  • HelmsPM et al.

    Abnormalities of blink rate in psychoses: A preliminary report

    Biol Psychiatry

    (1985)
  • KarsonCN et al.

    Speaking, thinking and blinking

    Psychiatry Res

    (1981)
  • KarsonCN et al.

    Blink rates: Neuropharmacological and clinical evidence of dopaminergic control

    Psychopharmacol Bull

    (1983)
  • KarsonCN et al.

    Blink rates and disorders of movements

    Neurology

    (1984)
  • KarsonCN et al.

    Increased blink rate in adolescent patients with psychosis

    Psychiat Res

    (1986)
  • KarsonCN et al.

    Blink rates in schizophrenia

    Schizophr Bull

    (1990)
  • KauffmanAS

    Intelligence Testing with the WISC-R

    (1979)
  • KitamuraT et al.

    Blink rate and blunted affect among chronic schizophrenic patients

    Biol Psychiatry

    (1984)
  • Cited by (37)

    • The ocular surface in children: A review of current knowledge and meta-analysis of tear film stability and tear secretion in children

      2019, Ocular Surface
      Citation Excerpt :

      All participants were aged 18 years and below (0–18years). Seven cross-sectional [17,18,24,39,54–56] and five case control studies [19,20,36,41,42] published between 1996 and 2017 were included in this review summary. The process of filtering the articles to determine their eligibility for the review is represented in Fig. 1.

    • The dopamine D<inf>1</inf> receptor agonist SKF-82958 effectively increases eye blinking count in common marmosets

      2016, Behavioural Brain Research
      Citation Excerpt :

      Eye blinking can be spontaneous; without external stimuli or internal effort or reflex in response to an external stimulus, such as contact with the cornea [3]. A number of reports have shown that dopamine-associated central nerve system disorders, such as depression [4], panic disorders [5], attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder [6] and mild cognitive impairment [7] affect the rate of spontaneous blinking in humans. For example, patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), having reduced dopamine levels, exhibit low spontaneous blinking rate compared to healthy people [8,9].

    • ADHD subjects fail to suppress eye blinks and microsaccades while anticipating visual stimuli but recover with medication

      2014, Vision Research
      Citation Excerpt :

      Our results regarding blink rate are in line with previous studies, which found blink rates to be negatively correlated with arousal (Tanaka, 1999) and which increase with prolonged wakefulness (Barbato et al., 2007). However, our results are inconsistent with a previous study, which found lower than normal blink rates in unmedicated children with ADHD in a verbal recall task, and higher rates in these children taking medication (Caplan, Guthrie, & Komo, 1996). These opposing results could be attributed to differences in task and modality.

    • Protection from genetic diathesis in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Possible complementary roles of exercise

      2013, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
      Citation Excerpt :

      Among the first to investigate the impact of exercise in individuals with ADHD, Tantillo et al.65 studied the rate of spontaneous eye blinks (SEB), the acoustic startle eye-blink response (ASER), and motor impersistence, as noninvasive measures sensitive to dopamine agonists, in 8- to 12-year-olds with and without ADHD. Although SEB and ASER had previously been used as sensitive measures of dopamine function in children with ADHD,70,71 no clear link between ASER and ADHD has been established in human beings. Both the ADHD and control group underwent 2 bouts of exercise and 1 rest condition on consecutive days.

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    This study was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health grant KO1-MH00538 and NIMH R37 MH-45112.

    View full text