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“Signing tics”—insights into the pathophysiology of symptoms in Tourette's syndrome
Author(s) -
Lang Anthony E.,
Consky Earl,
Sandor Paul
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.410330212
Subject(s) - tics , tourette syndrome , association (psychology) , psychology , repertoire , tourette's syndrome , sign (mathematics) , linguistics , neuroscience , psychiatry , psychotherapist , philosophy , mathematical analysis , physics , mathematics , acoustics
We describse the case of a young woman with Tourette's syndrome who incorporated sign language into her tic behavior. Sign language was used in complex “phonictic” such as swearing, echoing what others said, or repeating what she said, read, or thought. We suggest the descriptive terms “coprolaliopraxia,” “echolaliopraxia,” and “palilaliopraxia” to denote these symptoms. The incorporation of such complex, learned movements into the repertoire of hyperkinesias further emphasizes the complicated association between purposeful and automatic execution of movements comprising tic behavior. This case also provides strong evidence against the suggestion that obscenities vocalized in Tourette's syndrome are due to a random generation of high‐probability sequences of letters or phonemes.