Grant: Doctoral Research Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Blinking is best known for its role in wetting the surface of the eye, removing debris, and protecting it from foreign objects. However, there is growing evidence that the brain networks related to attention, thinking, and communication play a role in blink timing as well. Therefore, it is likely that blink organization would be affected by neurological problems appearing in diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and Alzheimer's disease (AD). In my project, I will use video-based eye tracking data to study blink behaviour in individuals performing two visual tasks. My goal is to identify differences between neurological patients and healthy individuals that will help diagnose these diseases more effectively. To do so, I will (1) describe patterns in healthy individuals (n=650, aged 5-95 years) across the lifespan, (2) compare differences between age-matched controls (n=120) and patients (n=520), and (3) build a computational algorithm to help with diagnosis. Patient data for this project was collected over several years from individuals with PD, PSP, and AD throughout Ontario. I predict that some patient groups will differ in blink timing, duration, and other oculomotor parameters, compared to healthy individuals. These findings will establish blink behaviour as a marker of brain health, with the ability to detect early dysfunctions in each disease. This will also be useful for helping us understand more complex relationships to the social and mental aspects of blink behaviour.