Tourette's Syndrome Essay

Words: 881
Pages: 4

Tourette’s Syndrome is a movement disorder that affects the basal ganglia in the brain. It is characterized by sudden, involuntary, and repetitive movements and vocal tics.

II. Background
Tourette’s syndrome is a condition where the sufferer of the disease exhibits involuntary and repetitive movements and vocal noises. Sufferers of the disorder are often misinterpreted, that the movements they produce are intentional including the vocal noises especially when the vocal tics produced contain obscene and offending language. The syndrome was named after Dr. George Gilles de la Tourette, a French neurologist who studied patients with this disorder.

III. Detailed Discussion of Neuroanatomy
Tourette’s syndrome can be described as having involuntary motor tics and vocal tics. With regards to Neuroanatomy, it is the dysregulation or malfunction in the basal ganglia, the part in the brain which facilitates desired action while also inhibiting undesired or inappropriate actions. The basal ganglia includes several interconnected regions of the brain including the claudate nucleus and the putamen in the striatum. The size of the basal ganglia can also be considered as a factor in having Tourette’s syndrome, it is found that the size of the basal ganglia is smaller in sufferers of
…show more content…
It was considered rare previously but recently it is now discovered as being much more common. Children are much more likely to be affected however adults can also be affected. Children from 12 to 17 years of age are more or twice as common to be diagnosed than those children who are 6 through 11 years. In adults these symptoms can be traced since their childhood. Males are more affected that females. The common age of onset is 7 but by the age of 20 nearly a third of people who were diagnosed as children no longer have symptoms, 46% continue to have them but are milder and 22% have moderate to severe issues of