fMRI Cortical Correlates of Spontaneous Eye Blinks in the Nonhuman Primate

Eyeblinks are defined as a rapid closing and opening of the eyelid. Three types of blinks are defined: spontaneous, reflexive, and voluntary. Here, we focus on the cortical correlates of spontaneous blinks, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the nonhuman primate. Our observations...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991) N.Y. 1991), 2015-09, Vol.25 (9), p.2333-2345
Main Authors: Guipponi, Olivier, Odouard, Soline, Pinède, Serge, Wardak, Claire, Ben Hamed, Suliann
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Animals
Blinking - physiology
Cerebral Cortex - blood supply
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
Face - innervation
Female
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Life Sciences
Macaca mulatta
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neurons and Cognition
Oxygen
Regression Analysis
Statistics, Nonparametric
Time Factors
Touch - physiology
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Summary:Eyeblinks are defined as a rapid closing and opening of the eyelid. Three types of blinks are defined: spontaneous, reflexive, and voluntary. Here, we focus on the cortical correlates of spontaneous blinks, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the nonhuman primate. Our observations reveal an ensemble of cortical regions processing the somatosensory, proprioceptive, peripheral visual, and possibly nociceptive consequences of blinks. These observations indicate that spontaneous blinks have consequences on the brain beyond the visual cortex, possibly contaminating fMRI protocols that generate in the participants heterogeneous blink behaviors. This is especially the case when these protocols induce (nonunusual) eye fatigue and corneal dryness due to demanding fixation requirements, as is the case here. Importantly, no blink related activations were observed in the prefrontal and parietal blinks motor command areas nor in the prefrontal, parietal, and medial temporal blink suppression areas. This indicates that the absence of activation in these areas is not a signature of the absence of blink contamination in the data. While these observations increase our understanding of the neural bases of spontaneous blinks, they also strongly call for new criteria to identify whether fMRI recordings are contaminated by a heterogeneous blink behavior or not.
ISSN:1047-3211
1460-2199
DOI:10.1093/cercor/bhu038