How does hyperfunctioning of basal ganglia affect procedural learning and consolidation in Tourette syndrome?

Tourette syndrome is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by repetitive movements and vocalizations and by alterations in the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical circuits. The behavioral and neurobiological profile of Tourette syndrome points towards the high relevance of procedural memory in the disorder. Procedural memory makes us able to extract different kinds of regularities, such as probabilistic or deterministic information from the environment and is related to skills and habits. The present short review aims to summarize the findings on the acquisition of different regularities as well as their consolidation in Tourette syndrome. Altogether, regarding the acquisition of probabilistic and deterministic regularities, previous results show a mixed picture with mostly intact or enhanced performance in Tourette syndrome. Studies on the consolidation of such regularities are scarce, but empirical evidence suggests intact consolidation so far. Potential implications and future directions are also discussed.