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Do you feel emotionally overwhelmed in social situations?

Posted on 2 November 2016

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A Tourettes Action supported study has shown that when compared to control participants, people with TS have increased activity in brain areas involved in emotion processing when they view photographs of people’s eyes. This could indicate greater social sensitivity in TS and may help explain why people with TS can sometimes feel emotionally overwhelmed in social situations. It could also help to explain the social content of some tics (e.g. urges to copy other people’s actions, or to say socially taboo things). In this study, researchers found the same correlation with activity in the temporo-parietal junction and tic urges than found in a previous fMRI study. In summary, these experiments are revealing the important influence of the social environment and emotion processing in TS. Dr Clare Eddy and Prof Andrea Cavanna would like to thank everyone who took part. The paper is called  Empathy and aversion: the neural signature of mentalizing in Tourette syndrome.

If you have any questions please contact Seonaid Anderson.

 


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