ABSTRACT

It is widely known that humans have a tendency to imitate each other and that appropriate modulation of automatic imitative behaviors has a crucial function in social interactions. Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS) is a childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by motor and phonic tics. Apart from tics, patients with GTS are often reported to show an abnormal tendency to automatically imitate others’ behaviors (i.e., echophenomena), which may be related to a failure in top-down inhibition of imitative response tendencies. The aim of the current study is to explore the top-down inhibitory mechanisms on automatic imitative behaviors in youngsters with GTS. Error rates and reaction times from 32 participants with GTS and 32 controls were collected in response to an automatic imitation task assessing the influence of observed movements displayed in the first-person perspective on congruent and incongruent motor responses. Results showed that participants with GTS had higher error rates than controls, and their responses were faster than those of controls in incompatible stimuli. Our findings provide novel evidence of a key difference between youngsters with GTS and typically developing participants in the ability to effectively control the production of own motor responses to sensory inputs deriving from observed actions.

摘要

众所周知，人类有相互模仿的倾向，适当调节自动模仿行为在社交互动中具有至关重要的作用。Gilles de la Tourette 综合征 (GTS) 是一种儿童期发病的神经精神疾病，其特征是运动和声音抽动。除了抽动，GTS 患者经常被报道表现出异常的自动模仿他人行为的倾向（即，回声现象），这可能与自上而下抑制模仿反应倾向失败有关。本研究旨在探讨自上而下对 GTS 青少年自动模仿行为的抑制机制。收集了 32 名 GTS 参与者和 32 名对照者的错误率和反应时间，以响应一项自动模仿任务，该任务评估以第一人称视角显示的观察到的运动对一致和不一致的运动反应的影响。结果表明，患有 GTS 的参与者的错误率高于对照组，并且他们的反应比不相容刺激的对照组更快。我们的研究结果提供了新的证据，证明患有 GTS 的年轻人与典型的发展参与者之间存在关键差异，他们能够有效地控制自己对来自观察到的行为的感官输入的运动反应的产生。并且他们的反应比不相容刺激下的对照更快。我们的研究结果提供了新的证据，证明患有 GTS 的年轻人与典型的发展参与者之间存在关键差异，他们能够有效地控制自己对来自观察到的行为的感官输入的运动反应的产生。并且他们的反应比不相容刺激下的对照更快。我们的研究结果提供了新的证据，证明患有 GTS 的年轻人与典型的发展参与者之间存在关键差异，他们能够有效地控制自己对来自观察到的行为的感官输入的运动反应的产生。