Affiliations: The Michael Trimble Neuropsychiatry Research Group,
Department of Neuropsychiatry, BSMHFT and University of Birmingham, Birmingham,
UK | School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston Brain
Centre, Aston University, Birmingham, UK | Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement
Disorders, Institute of Neurology and University College London, London,
UK
Note: [] Corresponding author: Prof. Andrea Eugenio Cavanna, MD PhD,
Department of Neuropsychiatry, The Barberry National Centre for Mental Health,
Birmingham B15 2FG, UK. Tel.: +44 121 3012317; Fax: +44 121 3012291; E-mail:
[email protected]
Abstract: Most patients with Tourette syndrome report characteristic sensory
experiences (premonitory urges) associated with the expression of tic symptoms.
Despite the central role of these experiences to the clinical phenomenology of
Tourette syndrome, little is known about their underlying brain processes. In
the present article we present the results of a systematic literature review of
the published studies addressing the pathophysiological mechanisms of
premonitory urges. We identified some preliminary evidence for specific
alterations in sensorimotor processing at both cortical and subcortical levels.
A better insight into the brain correlates of premonitory urges could lead to
the identification of new targets to treat the sensory initiators of tics in
patients with Tourette syndrome.
