When we get to the world, we barely blink. We practically just close our eyes to sleep. You may have noticed that babies blink less than adults, but why does it happen?
A study released in The Annals of Neurology was dedicated to quantify the spontaneous flashes of 269 children and 179 adults and showed that, while babies close their eyes less than twice a minute, adolescents and adults blink up to 15 times in the same term.
Since the main purpose of blinking is to moisten the eye and remove any dirt or particles from the surface of the cornea, it seems logical to think that children need less protection, because they spend a lot of time asleep.
As they grow and grow up, the frequency increases to lubricate their eyes. On the other hand, as scientists have shown, spontaneous flickering is regulated by the dopaminergic system, which at first is not fully developed.
Even if you register how much we open and close your eyes, you can get an idea of the level of activity of dopamine , the pleasure hormone, in our head.
In addition, in relation to this, it has been proven that the elderly who have a very stereotyped and inflexible behavior blink much less than those who are more open to novelties.
Finally, babies blink less, in fact seven times less than adults, who need to do more to protect their eyes.
DOPAMINE
Several studies have concluded that flickering is regulated by dopamine, a neurotransmitter that sends signals from our brain to the rest of the body.
An investigation of the University of New York, the United States, reviews the different reasons that lead us to blink and establishes a relationship between dopamine and this involuntary act .
This would explain the increase in the frequency of blinking among people with schizophrenia or under the effects of drugs, which generally have high levels of this hormone.
In contrast, flickering decreases among people with Parkinson’s disease due to the death of dopamine-producing neurons, says the study’s lead researcher, Leigh Bacher.