SELECTIVE IMPAIRMENTS OF MEMORY FUNCTIONING IN UNMEDICATED ADULTS WITH GILLES-DE-LA-TOURETTES SYNDROME

Different forms of memory linked to specific brain regions were assessed in unmedicated adults with Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome (TS) and in normal controls of equivalent age and educational attainment. TS patients were impaired on measures of strategic, working, and procedural memory associated with fronto-striatal function. In contrast, their performance was intact on measures of immediate, semantic, and declarative memory associated with temporal-diencephalic functioning. These findings are consistent with radiological evidence of fronto-striatal abnormalities in TS and provide convergent evidence that a fronto-striatal memory system mediates working memory in humans.