There you are, minding your own business, when your eye starts to spasm¹ out of control.

 

有时候，当你专注于做事的时候，你的眼皮开始不受控制地跳动。

 

It's a very annoying feeling which can persist for hours. But is there any cause for alarm? Trinidadians have quite a rich collection of superstitions² concerning jumping eyes. For instance, if your right eye jumps, you are going to hear good news, and if your left eye jumps, you are going to hear bad news. Superstitions aside, the short answer is that a twitching³ eye is totally fine, although in some exceptional cases it may underlie⁴ a neurological condition. 

 

Eye spasm is characterized by the spontaneous contractions⁵ of muscle without muscular atrophy⁶ or weakness. You might have experienced an involuntary muscle spasm in your knee or elbow. The same can happen to the orbicularis oculi muscle (the muscle in the face that closes the eyelids⁷). 

 

Eye spams are typically unilateral, occurring in one of the lower eyelids. Sometimes, both eyelids may be involved but the fascicular contractions of each eyelid⁸ is independent of each other. The transient and intermittent⁹ twitching is semi-rhythmic at a rate of 3-8 Hz. 

 

In the majority of cases, eyelid spasms¹⁰ are no cause for concern. These are usually self-limiting and benign¹¹, so medical intervention¹² is typically unnecessary. Very rarely, eyelid myokymia may occur as a precursor¹³ of hemifacial spasm, blepharospasm, Meige syndrome¹⁴, spastic-paretic facial contracture, and multiple sclerosis.

点击收听单词发音