抄録
Markov properties are the stochastic processes which determine the dependency of a current event upon earlier events. This study applies this statistical index to spontaneous blink intervals to quantitatively analyze the factors which regulate interblink intervals. Vertical electro-oculography is used to measure the blinks of normal subjects for thirty minutes with and without a mental task. As a result, subjects without a mental task exhibit strong Markov properties, which suggests that blinks evoked by stationary physical stimulus such as dryness and dustiness occur depending upon earlier events. On the other hand, subjects with a mental task exhibit weak Markov properties, which suggests that blinks evoked by transient cognitive factors occur randomly according to the current state of the subjects.
