Objective: Fronto-striatal dysfunction has been discussed as underlying symptoms of Tourette syndrome (TS) with co-morbid Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This suggests possible impairments of executive functions in this disorder, which were therefore targeted in the present study.
Methods: A comprehensive series of neuropsychological tests examining attention, memory and executive functions was performed in a group of 14 TS/OCD in co-occurrence with OCD patients and a matched control group.
Results: While attentional and memory mechanisms were not altered, TS/OCS patients showed deficits in executive functions predominantly in the areas of response inhibition and action monitoring.
Conclusions: These findings provide further evidence for a substantial impairment of the frontal-striatal-thalamic-frontal circuit. We propose that the deficits in monitoring, error detection and response inhibition constitute the major impairment of TS/OCD patients in the cognitive domain.