Tourettes Syndrome and the :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Tourette's Syndrome and the "I" Function Tourette's syndrome is characterized by a presentation of verbal and motor tics. The first descriptions of the syndrome, involving symptoms similar to Tourette's, were reported in the nineteenth century. For most of the twentieth century TS was thought to be a psychiatric disorder because of the ability the patients had to suppress their tics. In the past twenty years more biological factors have been introduced in the study of the syndrome, arising from the use of pharmacological treatment and the discovery of hereditary patterns of the disorder. In the diagnosis of Tourette's Syndrome the concept of involuntary tics has become hard to define. Many patients experience a volitional aspect of the tics, "a capitulation to an internal urge for motor discharge accompanied by psychological tension and anxiety Patients who are afflicted with Tourette's syndrome can only describe their symptoms by using terms associated with the "I" function, the consciousness of self and relation to one's environment, and many of their symptoms are associated with or affect the function of their self. This can imply that what ever is causing the symptoms of Tourette's is subsequently affecting the part of the nervous system that controls the self and the "I" function. Most of the studies done on the neuropathology of Tourette's syndrome (TS) have been focus on the basal ganglia, a group of nuclei located mostly in the diencephelon of the brain, a region beneath the cortex. This area has been classically associated with involuntary movement and tic disorders such as Parkinson and Huntington's disease. The neural circuits formed by the basal ganglia and the thalamus are critical for normal function and hypothesized to be required for the planning of movement ranging from simple to complex. Though what these pathways actually do is still very vague the basal ganglia has been found, in normal circumstances, to exert an inhibitory influence on the thalamus. Disruption of this inhibition could correspond with TS in which the making of uncontrolled and unplanned movements are involve. There is evidence that patients with Tourette's syndrome have some structural abnormalities in the region of the basal ganglia, mainly TS patients showed a comparative size reduction in the basal ganglia. There are various different behaviors through which Tourette's syndrome presents itself. The diagnostic categories of TS depend on the presence of tics, alone, although patients with Tourette may have mental or behavioral disorders, which over shadow the severity or impairment on normal function of the tics.