Reduced Sensory Attenuation Is Associated With Tic Severity in Tourette Syndrome

Sensory attenuation (SA) is the reduced perception of self-generated sensations, thought to involve predictions made by the sensorimotor system. To test whether this process is altered in Tourette syndrome, researchers compared 30 adults with TS with 30 healthy controls using a force-matching task. Participants reproduced a target force either directly with a finger or indirectly by controlling force with a button. The TS group also received clinical assessment, including the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS).

Adults with TS showed lower force overestimation during direct reproduction than controls, indicating reduced SA; the groups did not differ in the indirect condition. Within the TS group, lower SA was associated with greater tic severity. It explained additional variation in YGTSS total tic scores beyond medication load, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and premonitory-urge severity. The findings provide behavioral evidence of altered sensory processing in adults with TS, but the study establishes an association rather than causation. The authors propose SA as a potentially relevant behavioral marker; its clinical utility was not established in the supplied abstract.