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

Usually, the first symptoms of Tourette Syndrome are facial tics, commonly middle blinking. Other facial tics include nose twitching and grimaces. The next tic to come on will usually be some other minor aim tic such as foot stomping, head jerking, neck stretching, or personify twisting and bending. Affected individuals whitethorn also have a point-blank tic such as clearing their throat, coughing, grunting, sniffing, yelping, barking, or shouting. Few Tourette Syndrome patients also put through coperlalia-the uttering of inappropriate or obscene words or phrases. They also whitethorn repeat words they hear others saying (echolalia). Some individuals touch pot or repeat actions in an obsessive manner. Very rarely, patients demonstrate self-harming style such as head banging, and lip or cheek vinegarish only patients with severe TS exhibit such behaviors. Tics are random, changing in severity, number, frequency, type, and location. Often cadences, symptoms will subside for weeks or even months at a time and later reappear. Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder in which too frequently or too little dopamine is produced in the brain. Too much dopamine causes hyperactivity. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter used in the substantia nigra and corpus striatum which are important for movement. Other systems which can 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 possessive trait that can cause different symptoms in different family members. If the topic 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.