Although tic disorders are diagnosed as neurological disorders, neurobehavioral models suggest that tics are controlled by premonitory urges that may be conditioned to become aversive through childhood, and that tics are exhibited to alleviate such phenomena. However, only indirect measures have been used to assess the presence of the premonitory urge. This study utilized self-report and GSR measurements to examine whether a punishing contingency conditioned stimuli to be aversive during conditions of tic suppression and whether punishing contingencies exacerbate aversive private phenomena in two adults. Results indicated that conditions of response cost (RC) and differential reinforcement (DRO) were effective at reducing the number of tics compared to baseline. Moreover, GSR was unrelated to urge and suppression conditions despite higher self-reported urge ratings in DRO and RC conditions. Implications of findings are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USF/oai:scholarcommons.usf.edu:etd-6186 |
| Date | 01 May 2014 |
| Creators | Brandt, Bryan |
| Publisher | Scholar Commons |
| Source Sets | University of South Flordia |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Graduate Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | default |
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