Dec. 12, 2011 -- When and why children blink may provide researchers some important clues about how children with autism process and take in information.

Although it may not feel like it, blinking interrupts what we are watching. If a story or scene is engrossing, we can keep our eyes peeled. This is called blink inhibition. There are key differences between toddlers with and without autism spectrum disorder and when they blink their eyes.

The new finding appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The CDC states that one in 110 children in the U.S. has an autism spectrum disorder. This is a range of developmental disorders that affect the ability to communicate and relate to others.

In the new study, 2-year-olds with or without autism watched a video of a boy and girl playing. The video included physical movements as well as children interacting with each other. For the typical children, the rate of blinking decreased more when watching the emotional part than during physical movements. This pattern was reversed among children with autism.