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Question 66: Hello there my name is A., I'm a 17 yr. old student in Australia who has recently been diagnosed with TS....It has been rumoured that Mozart had tourette syndrome, I wonder could this have been the source of his creative genius....What evidence is there, if any of a link between TS and creativity?. The other question I want to ask you is, what is a mental tic. Would echolalia be an example of a mental tic? Maybe all mental illnesses are a form of tic disorder? A.A., Australia.

Good evening A.!

While there is no research that I know of (yet) linking TS and creativity, this link most certainly exists. Given the urgency in the research community to find cures and understand genetics, there is scant little time for more "positive" projects unfortunately.

In my presentations I delve quite heavily into the connection. My thought is that in a brain without many "brakes", there is a higher probability that two (or more) unassociated thoughts will fire simultaneously, become associated, and be the basis for original new ideas, compositions, or pieces of art. I speak a bit about this in one of my T(r)IC(k)S articles: number 9 (The Positives of Disinhibition Part I).



With respect to "mental tics", echolalia is an example of a complex phonic ("noise") tic, but technically because all tics come from the brain ALL tics are, in a sense, mental tics. There is not a recognized "mental tic" category, persey, so probably different people using this term define it in different ways. One definition of "mental tic" may be very similar to an obsession (a thought that repeats over and over, and usually requires a compulsion or ritual to be performed to help satiate the anxiety behind it). My own definition of a "cognitive tic" is a thought that, instead of being anxiety-provoking and resulting in a ritual-like behaviour, is more a thought about a particular physical discomfort (being stabbed, or having a heart attack) that leads to a tic-like behaviour (usually imitating the imagined discomfort).



While not all disorders involve "tics" in the traditional sense, certainly many disorders (particularly those associated with TS) tend to be about "braking" problems -- the brakes over your movements (TS), attention (ADHD), thoughts (OCD), sensory input (SID), emotions (bipolar), etc. In these types of disorders, what is usually "disordered" isn't the particular thing that the person is doing, but rather when, how often, how long, and how intensely he or she is doing it. Many tics are "normal" movements in the proper context.........in addition everyone gets stuck on a thought or has a hard time paying attention sometimes. It's when these things happen spontaneously, all the time, to a severe degree, and cannot be well regulated that it is defined as a "disorder".


I hope this helps, A. All the best to you in your journey! Take good care -- I'm rooting for you.

Dr. Dunc.

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