TY - Jour A2 - Zappia，Mario Au - Zago，Stefano Au - Delli Ponti，Silvia Au - Solca，Federica Au - Tomasini，Emanuele Au - Poletti，Barbara Au - Inglese，Silvia Au - Sartori，Giuseppe Au- Porta, Mauro PY - 2014 DA - 2014/11/30 TI - Counterfactual Thinking in Tourette’s Syndrome: A Study Using Three Measures SP - 256089 VL - 2014 AB - 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. SN - 0953-4180 UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/256089 DO - 10.1155/2014/256089 JF - Behavioural Neurology PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation KW - ER -