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conferenceseries.com
Volume 21 International Journal of Emergency Mental
Health and Human Resilience
ISSN: 1522-4821
Mental Health 2019
March 07-08, 2019
March 07-08, 2019 | Barcelona, Spain
5th International Conference on
Mental Health and Human Resilience
Procedural processing in Tourette’s syndrome
Alexandra Radosi, Szabo E D, Tóth-Faber E, Bunford N and Takacs A
Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungary
Objective: Tourette’s syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by tics, which are fast, repeated but
not rhythmic involuntarily and suddenly appearing movements or vocalizations. These symptoms are associated
with significant subjective and social burden. To date, neuropsychological studies have primarily focused on deficits
and, albeit findings are mixed, those generally implicate cognitive flexibility, inhibition, and verbal fluency in the
disorder. However, mapping potential strengths is also a key, as those may reflect relevant resilience factors. There
is a reason to believe that faster procedural processing, which results from hyperkinetic over activity due to the
dysfunctional frontal lobe and basal ganglia processing, is one such area of strength. The aim of this study was to
explore the association between individual differences in procedural processing and verbal fluency in children with
Tourette’s syndrome and typically developing peers.
Methods: Participants were 42 children (6 girls) with Tourette’s syndrome (Mage=148.43 (months), SD=16.41) and
age- and gender-matched healthy controls (Mage=149.38, SD=16.98), tested on three types of verbal fluency tasks:
action, semantic and phonemic. We hypothesized that the Tourette group would perform better in the action and
phonemic fluency tasks.
Results & Discussion: Findings showed that in the phonemic fluency task, children with Tourette’s syndrome listed
more verbs (t(1)=295.23, p<0.001) and made fewer errors (listing an incorrect word: t(1)=7.81, p=0.005; repeating
a word t(1)=8.19, p=0.004) than controls. These results confirm strength in phonemic fluency in patients with
Tourette’s syndrome. In the poster, implications for clinical/ neuropsychological conceptualization and prevention
and treatment will be discussed.
Biography
Alexandra Radosi earned a BA degree in Psychology from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Faculty of Education and Psychology, in 2016. She also obtained
her MA at same university in 2018. The title of her master’s thesis was procedural processing in Tourette’s syndrome. Following graduation, she joined the
Lendület Developmental and Translational Neuroscience Research Group as a Pre-Doctorate ResearchAssistant at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and
Psychology, at the Research Centre for Natural Sciences (RCNS) of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She is planning to begin her PhD studies, focusing on
neuroimaging of individual differences in motivational and emotional functioning.
Alexandra Radosi et al., Int J Emerg Ment Health 2019, Volume 21
DOI: 10.4172/1522-4821-C1-027