SLOWED REACTION-TIME DURING A CONTINUOUS PERFORMANCE-TEST IN CHILDRENWITH TOURETTES-SYNDROME

The phenomenology of Tourette's syndrome (TS) not only includes ties b ut also apparent deficits in attention. These attentional deficits in TS likely involve anomalies in frontal-striatal circuits. In this stud y, performance of 22 boys with TS and 22 age-matched boys without TS w as compared on a continuous performance test (CPT) of attention. TS ch ildren demonstrated a normal capacity for discriminating targets from nontargets during the task, but showed significantly slower reaction t imes than controls. Severity of complex vocal ties was predictive of r eaction time performance. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed and include the presence of attentional difficulties in TS, interference associated with tic suppression, a conservative strategy taken by TS children, and a general impairment of motor performance.