[Coprolalic behavior in patients with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome. Form and functional aspects]

Coprolalia as described by Gilles de la Tourette can take two forms: it either turns around a specific theme and serves as a specific and uniform commentary on the discourse of the patient or of others, or on the patient's situation; it may also take the form of seemingly arbitrary "scatalogical punctuations" the semiotic function of which is not evident. It seems clear that coprolalia is involuntary. The limbic lobe may be involved in episodic scatalogical productions; this structure, as observed by Yakovlev, plays a role in "emotive motility" which is essentially centripetal and automatic. The involvement of the limbic lobe would not explain, however, why such verbal behavior is not censored by internal control mechanisms.