Response Inhibition in Tic Disorders

Abstract

Objective: Tic disorders such as Gilles-de-la-Tourette syndrome (TS) are associated with difficulties in withholding movements and sometimes inappropriate actions. The present study examined whether these disorders lead to a specific difficulty in withholding preprogrammed voluntary movements irrespective of decisions on whether or not to move. Method: Children with TS with or without attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and controls performed a fast-paced simple reaction time task involving responses to a target in a rapid letter stream (9 letters/s, average foreperiod 332 ms) with feedback on response speed. Results: The ADHD group showed more premature responses and more variable response time than other groups, whether the timing of the target was predictable or not. Conclusion: The data indicate that in tic disorders, the presence of ADHD is associated with difficulties in waiting to initiate preprogrammed movements independently of response selection or response timing difficulties.