Premonitory urges as "attentional tics" in Tourette's syndrome

Abstract

The author, a graduate student with Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome, proposes that pre-tic sensory experiences result from a specific attentional deficit. Based on his own introspective case study, the author argues that the premonitory urges that precede tics are not unique sensory events, but rather are manifestations of somatosensory hyperawareness which serves as the aversive stimulus toward which tics are purposively directed. An "attentional tic" theoretical framework for the study of Tourette's syndrome is suggested and discussed in reference to inhibitory theories of attention.