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

Usually, the first symptoms of Tourette Syndrome atomic number 18 facial tics, comm still eye blinking. other facial tics include nose twitching and grimaces. The next tic to appear allow usually be some other minor motor tic much(prenominal)(prenominal) as foot stomping, head jerking, neck stretching, or body worm and bending. Affected individuals may likewise have a vocal tic such(prenominal) as clearing their throat, coughing, grunting, sniffing, yelping, barking, or shouting. Few Tourette Syndrome patients also experience coperlalia-the uttering of impertinent or obscene words or phrases. They also may resort words they hear others saying (echolalia). Some individuals touch people or repeat actions in an obsessive 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, symptom s impart subside for weeks or even months at a time and after reappear. Tourette syndrome is a neurological disorder in which too much or too little dopamine is produced in the brain. Too much dopamine causes hyperactivity. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter used in the substantia nigra and 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 brokers affecting the brains metabolism of neurotransmitters in general. Tourette Syndrome is a highly penetrant, sex influenced autosomal dominant quality 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 a couple of(prenominal) cases, TS is sporadic and the cause is unknown.