Premonitory urges and tics in Tourette syndrome: computational mechanisms and neural correlates.

Premonitory urges and tics in Tourette syndrome: computational mechanisms and neural correlates. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2017 Oct 06;46:187-199 Authors: Conceição VA, Dias Â, Farinha AC, Maia TV Abstract Tourette syndrome is characterized by open motor behaviors - tics - but another crucial aspect of the disorder is the presence of premonitory urges: uncomfortable sensations that typically precede tics and are temporarily alleviated by tics. We review the evidence implicating the somatosensory cortices and the insula in premonitory urges and the motor cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loop in tics. We consider how these regions interact during tic execution, suggesting that the insula plays an important role as a nexus linking the sensory and emotional character of premonitory urges with their translation into tics. We also consider how these regions interact during tic learning, integrating the neural evidence with a computational perspective on how premonitory-urge alleviation reinforces tics. PMID: 29017141 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Current Opinion in Neurobiology - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Curr Opin Neurobiol Source Type: research