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Scientists reveal a bizarre sign that you’ve got a well
AOL.com • • science
Key Points:
- Researchers found that higher spontaneous eye-blink rates (sEBR) in children aged 3-6 correlate with better performance on cognitive flexibility tasks, indicating stronger executive functioning.
- The study linked increased blinking to greater activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dIPFC), a brain region responsible for planning and focus during rule-switching tasks.
- Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and video recordings, scientists observed that blinking coincides with peak dIPFC activity and reflects dopamine signaling, a key neuromodulator for cognitive control.
- Children who blinked more frequently performed better on a card-sorting game requiring shifting between rules, with blink rate serving as a more accurate marker of cognitive ability than age alone.
- While eye-blink rate shows promise as a simple, noninvasive indicator of brain function in young children, researchers emphasize it is not a replacement for brain scans or behavioral assessments but a tool for further exploration.
