Tourette Syndrome: Symptoms, Causes, and Genetics :: essays research papers fc

Usually, the first symptoms of Tourette Syndrome be facial tics, commonly eye blinking. Other facial tics include nose twitching and grimaces. The next tic to appear get out usually be some other minor motor tic such as foot stomping, head jerking, neck stretching, or body twisting and bending. modify individuals may as well have a vocal tic such as clearing their throat, coughing, grunting, sniffing, yelping, barking, or shouting. Few Tourette Syndrome patients also experience coperlalia-the uttering of inappropriate or prurient words or phrases. They also may repeat words they hear others saying (echolalia). Some individuals touch people or repeat actions in an obsessional manner. Very rarely, patients demonstrate self-harming behavior such as head banging, and lip or cheek biting only patients with severe TS exhibit such behaviors. Tics are random, changing in severity, number, frequency, type, and location. Oftentimes, symptoms will subside for weeks or even months at a ti me and later reappear. Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder in which as well much or too little dopamine is produced in the brain. Too much dopamine evidences hyperactivity. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter used in the substantia nigra and striatum which are important for movement. Other systems which squirt be effected by dopamine send axons from the midbrain to the forebrain, including the cerebral cortex. Recent research has shown that TS may also be an abnormality in the genes affecting the brains metabolism of neurotransmitters in general. Tourette Syndrome is a highly penetrant, sex influenced autosomal dominant trait that can cause different symptoms in different family members. If the offspring that carries the TS gene is male, his risk of developing symptoms is three to four times higher. In few cases, TS is sporadic and the cause is unknown.