Verbal learning during tic suppression in children with a chronic tic disorder

This study experimentally tested the effects of concurrent tic suppression on a verbal learning task in children with a chronic tic disorder in a semirandomized agematched between groups design using reinforced suppression and tic freely groups. Analyses revealed equal initial learning and immediate recall of words between groups, but the suppression group was able to recall fewer words relative to the control group following a delay while concurrently suppressing. Following a release from suppression and long-delay period, the suppression group again freely recalled an equal number of words but recognized fewer words when presented with a list of words. Despite statistically equal performance between groups at some time points of the task, all means for the suppression group were less than that of the control group. Taken together, these results suggest that tic suppression interferes with registration of newly learned verbal information in long-term memory as well as retrieval of said information while suppressing. Further data collection may reveal that tic suppression results in more broad impairment across learning constructs (i.e., working memory, encoding, registration). This study has implications for people with tic disorders and behavioral treatments of tic disorders.