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Humans

People with Tourette's may be better at learning without trying

By Helen Thomson

7 March 2018

Person driving

Are people with Tourette’s better at learning tasks like driving?

People with Tourette’s syndrome seem to have enhanced memory that could make them better at learning tasks unconsciously, such as speaking a second language or driving a car.

Procedural memory helps us do things without conscious thought. An experiment in which children played a computer game suggests that children with Tourette’s may be much better at learning in this way. “This highlights the facts that conditions like this can be associated not only with disadvantages, but also potential advantages,” says Dezso Nemeth at the Hungarian Academy of…

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