Echoes from childhood-imitation in Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome

Background: Tourette syndrome patients are reported to show automatic imitation (echopraxia), but this has not yet been proven experimentally. Methods: Video clips showing either tics of other Tourette patients or spontaneous movements of healthy subjects were presented to Tourette patients and heal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Movement disorders 2012-04, Vol.27 (4), p.562-565
Main Authors: Finis, Jennifer, Moczydlowski, Agnes, Pollok, Bettina, Biermann-Ruben, Katja, Thomalla, Götz, Heil, Martin, Krause, Holger, Jonas, Melanie, Schnitzler, Alfons, Münchau, Alexander
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Case-Control Studies
echopraxia
Female
Gilles de la Tourette syndrome
Headache. Facial pains. Syncopes. Epilepsia. Intracranial hypertension. Brain oedema. Cerebral palsy
Humans
imitation
Imitative Behavior - physiology
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
mirror neuron system
Movement - physiology
Movement disorders
Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes)
Neurology
Statistics, Nonparametric
Tourette Syndrome - physiopathology
Videotape Recording - methods
Young Adult
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Summary:Background: Tourette syndrome patients are reported to show automatic imitation (echopraxia), but this has not yet been proven experimentally. Methods: Video clips showing either tics of other Tourette patients or spontaneous movements of healthy subjects were presented to Tourette patients and healthy subjects. Participants' responses were assessed using blinded review of video recordings by 2 independent raters and related to stimuli presented. Results: Both raters detected more echoes in patients. In a permutation analysis, no healthy subject had echoes above chance level. In contrast, 6 and 5 patients were classified as echoers according to rater 1 and rater 2, respectively, in 1 analysis, and 9 patients were so classified in a second analysis (according to rater 2 only). Concordance between raters was high. Patients echoed both following stimuli showing tics and following stimuli showing spontaneous movements. Most echoes were part of patients' individual tic repertoire. Conclusions: Echopraxia is a hallmark of Tourette syndrome. © 2012 Movement Disorder Society
ISSN:0885-3185
1531-8257
DOI:10.1002/mds.24913