Low dimensional temporal organization of spontaneous eye blinks in adults with developmental disabilities and stereotyped movement disorder

This study investigated the mean rate and time-dependent sequential organization of spontaneous eye blinks in adults with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) and individuals from this group who were additionally categorized with stereotypic movement disorder (IDD + SMD). The mean blink rate was lower in the IDD + SMD group than the IDD group and both of these groups had a lower blink rate than a contrast group of healthy adults. In the IDD group the n to n + 1 sequential organization over time of the eye-blink durations showed a stronger compensatory organization than the contrast group suggesting decreased complexity/dimensionality of eye-blink behavior. Very low blink rate (and thus insufficient time series data) precluded analysis of time-dependent sequential properties in the IDD + SMD group. These findings support the hypothesis that both IDD and SMD are associated with a reduction in the dimension and adaptability of movement behavior and that this may serve as a risk factor for the expression of abnormal movements.