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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Mike Kane is a cognitive psychologist who studies the dynamic interaction between attention and memory. Mike has Tourette's Syndrome (TS), a disorder characterized by multiple motor tics and at least one vocal tic. His first professional paper, while still a graduate student in psychology, was an introspective case study of his own experience of TS tics. Whereas the tics that characterize TS have typically been thought to be involuntary, Kane's observations and the work of others have suggested that TS tics tend to be compulsory, perhaps emitted in response to a subjective tactile/kinesthetic/sensory experience. Kane observed in himself, as have others, that tics are preceded by premonitory sensations:
These sensations are not mere precursors to tics; they precipitate tics. … I experience the TS state as one of keen bodily awareness, or a continual consciousness of muscle, joint, and skin sensations. For example when sitting in a chair, I do not lose awareness of the tactile sensation of the seat against my body, nor can I ignore the deeper somatic sensations of what my back and legs feel like.
The TS state is omnipresent with few exceptions (e.g., during intense concentration or attentional focus, such as in lecturing), but it is not constant in bodily location or intensity.…
If a tic is temporarily stopped, its respective bodily location becomes less ignorable. If all tics are suppressed, virtually all of my joints and muscles begin to demand my attention. The TS state heightens to a stiffening feeling, such that my skin feels like a hardened casing and my joints feel as though they are becoming rigid. […]
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