Researchers recently examined whether blinking frequency in young children is linked to the development of brain skills involved in flexible thinking and self-control.
The study, published in the journal Communications Psychology, included 113 children between three and six years old from two preschools in Japan. The group had almost equal numbers of boys and girls, with an average age of about five.
Each child played a card-sorting game designed to test mental flexibility. For example, children were first asked to sort cards by colour and then suddenly told to sort them by shape. They then had to switch between the two rules.
While the children played the game, researchers used a noninvasive brain-imaging method that uses light to measure changes in blood flow in the brain. This allowed them to see which areas of the front part of the brain became more active. A camera also recorded the children’s faces so researchers could later count how often they blinked.
As expected, older children performed better on the card-sorting test. Brain scans also showed that brain activity changed as children grew older.
Younger children showed activity spread across several areas, while older children showed more activity concentrated in the right upper part of the forehead. Researchers believe this may show that areas of the prefrontal brain become more specialised as children develop.
Researchers also noticed that children who blinked more often showed greater activity in the same right upper forehead region. They also performed better on the card-sorting task, even after researchers took their age into account.
The researchers further noted that blinking normally becomes more frequent during early childhood. Babies blink very rarely, but the rate increases significantly between about one and five years of age.
“The discovery could ultimately improve understanding of why some children experience profound challenges with cognitive control and adaptation,” said senior authors Dr Atsuko Yamashita and Dr John-Paul J. Yu.
“By identifying this simple indicator of brain functional differentiation, we hope to gather additional evidence from paediatric clinical studies to determine whether these findings can be translated to the early detection of neurodevelopmental conditions.” – dpa
