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Rapid Voluntary Blinking as a Clinical Marker of Parkinson's Disease.

Michaela FrancisAlexandra ZirraTahrina HaqueDavid GallagherCaroline BuduAndrew J LeesAnette SchragAlastair J NoyceCristina Simonet
Published in: Journal of Parkinson's disease (2024)
Reduced spontaneous blinking is a recognized Parkinson's disease (PD) feature. In contrast, voluntary blinking has been less studied and might serve as a measurable marker of facial bradykinesia. We tested 31 PD patients and 31 controls. Participants were filmed during conversation and a rapid blinking task. Both tasks were videorecorded to count the number of blinks per second. PD patients had lower blink rates. Rapid blinking accurately discriminated between groups with 77% sensitivity and 71% specificity. To conclude, rapid blinking may be a simple and quantifiable task of facial bradykinesia.
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