Somatosensory perception–action binding in Tourette syndrome

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Julia Friedrich - , Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Lübeck, Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein - Campus Lübeck (Author)
  • Henriette Spaleck - , University of Lübeck (Author)
  • Ronja Schappert - , University of Lübeck (Author)
  • Maximilian Kleimaker - , University of Lübeck, Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein - Campus Lübeck (Author)
  • Julius Verrel - , University of Lübeck (Author)
  • Tobias Bäumer - , University of Lübeck (Author)
  • Christian Beste - , Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (Author)
  • Alexander Münchau - , University of Lübeck (Author)

Abstract

It is a common phenomenon that somatosensory sensations can trigger actions to alleviate experienced tension. Such “urges” are particularly relevant in patients with Gilles de la Tourette (GTS) syndrome since they often precede tics, the cardinal feature of this common neurodevelopmental disorder. Altered sensorimotor integration processes in GTS as well as evidence for increased binding of stimulus- and response-related features (“hyper-binding”) in the visual domain suggest enhanced perception–action binding also in the somatosensory modality. In the current study, the Theory of Event Coding (TEC) was used as an overarching cognitive framework to examine somatosensory-motor binding. For this purpose, a somatosensory-motor version of a task measuring stimulus–response binding (S-R task) was tested using electro-tactile stimuli. Contrary to the main hypothesis, there were no group differences in binding effects between GTS patients and healthy controls in the somatosensory-motor paradigm. Behavioral data did not indicate differences in binding between examined groups. These data can be interpreted such that a compensatory “downregulation” of increased somatosensory stimulus saliency, e.g., due to the occurrence of somatosensory urges and hypersensitivity to external stimuli, results in reduced binding with associated motor output, which brings binding to a “normal” level. Therefore, “hyper-binding” in GTS seems to be modality-specific.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number13388
JournalScientific reports
Volume11
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 34183712
ORCID /0000-0002-2989-9561/work/160952350

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas