Most biomolecular processes rely on tightly controlled stoichiometries, from the formation of molecular assemblies to cellular signaling. Single-molecule localization micro-scopy studies of fluorophore blinking offer a promising route to probe oligomeric states. Here we show that the distribution of the number of blinking events assumes a universal functional form, independent of photophysics, ...

Purpose Pain sensitivity has been identified as a factor that affects how individuals answer dry eye questionnaires, but it is unknown how it affects ocular discomfort. This study used the time that individuals could refrain from blinking as an indicator of ocular discomfort and set out to determine whether it was related to pain sensitivity, while adjusting for ocular surface conditions. Met...

Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and the 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesioned rat model share blink abnormalities. In view of the evolutionarily conserved organization of blinking, characterization of blink reflex circuits in rodents may elucidate the neural mechanisms of PD reflex abnormalities. We examine the extent of this shared pattern of blink abnormalities by measuring blink reflex excit...

Spontaneous blinking occurs 15-20 times per minute. Although blinking has often been associated with its physiological role of corneal lubrication, there is now increasing behavioral evidence suggesting that blinks are also modulated by cognitive processes such as attention and information processing. Recent low-density electroencephalography (EEG) studies have reported so-called blink-related ...

Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, or quantum dots (QDs), can exhibit bright, long-lived fluorescence, with an emission wavelength that is simply tuned by changing the size of the nanocrystal. This property makes them promising, for example, as biological labels, and as the active medium in light-emitting diodes or lasers. However, such applications may be compromised by fluctuations in the ...

We estimate the number of CdSe quantum dots QDs in a microenvironment by analyzing the intensity fluctuation of the fluorescence time trace from a collection of QDs in the fluorescence intensity steady-state regime. The steady state is chosen because the aged blinking dynamics of single QDs leads to a higher probability for observing large on and off waiting times relative to the typical time b...

The timing and frequency of spontaneous eyeblinking is thought to be influenced by ongoing internal cognitive or neurophysiological processes, but how precisely these processes influence the dynamics of eyeblinking is still unclear. This study aimed to better understand the functional role of eyeblinking during cognitive processes by investigating the temporal pattern of eyeblinks during the pe...