title: Counterfactual thinking in Tourette's syndrome: a study using three measures.
abstract: Pathophysiological evidence suggests an involvement of frontostriatal circuits in Tourette syndrome (TS) and cognitive abnormalities have been detected in tasks sensitive to cognitive deficits associated with prefrontal damage (verbal fluency, planning, attention shifting, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and social reasoning). A disorder in counterfactual thinking (CFT), a behavioural executive process linked to the prefrontal cortex functioning, has not been investigated in TS. CFT refers to the generation of a mental simulation of alternatives to past factual events, actions, and outcomes. It is a pervasive cognitive feature in everyday life and it is closely related to decision-making, planning, problem-solving, and experience-driven learning-cognitive processes that involve wide neuronal networks in which prefrontal lobes play a fundamental role. Clinical observations in patients with focal prefrontal lobe damage or with neurological and psychiatric diseases related to frontal lobe dysfunction (e.g., Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and schizophrenia) show counterfactual thinking impairments. In this work, we evaluate the performance of CFT in a group of patients with Tourette's syndrome compared with a group of healthy participants. Overall results showed no statistical differences in counterfactual thinking between TS patients and controls in the three counterfactual measures proposed. The possible explanations of this unexpected result are discussed below.
authors.affiliation: U.O.C. Neurologia, IRCCS, Fondazione Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zago
authors.affiliation: Tourette Centre and Department of Functional Neurosurgery, IRCCS Galeazzi, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Delli Ponti
authors.affiliation: Tourette Centre and Department of Functional Neurosurgery, IRCCS Galeazzi, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4614-0167
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mastroianni
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Laboratory of Neuroscience, "Dino Ferrari Center", University of Milan Medical School, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3274-3963
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Solca
authors.affiliation: U.O.C. Neurologia, IRCCS, Fondazione Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3891-0520
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tomasini
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Laboratory of Neuroscience, "Dino Ferrari Center", University of Milan Medical School, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4398-2051
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Poletti
authors.affiliation: U.O.C. Neurologia, IRCCS, Fondazione Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Inglese
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sartori
authors.affiliation: Tourette Centre and Department of Functional Neurosurgery, IRCCS Galeazzi, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Porta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D013850:Thinking; D005879:Tourette Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult