Well, I didn’t say they had Tourette’s, I said they could get into a similar configuration, implying they could exhibit similar symptpms. One of the symptoms of Tourette’s is coprolalia, which this person was exhibiting.
And well, one of the most famous brain injury survivors was Phineas Gage, who was described after the accident as:
So yeah, the person certainly could have exhibited similar symptoms after a brain injury, whether or not they copulated with their mother.
Anyone interested in the strange effects of brain injuries and the general topic of brain dysfunctions would probably very much enjoy An Anthropologist on Mars, an excellent book by the late British neurologist and science historian Oliver Sacks. One of the case histories he explores is that of a renowned surgeon with Tourette’s, who was absolutely nuts with seemingly uncontrollable symptoms in most circumstances, but completely calm and highly skilled when performing delicate surgery (he was a brain surgeon, IIRC). Another case study was that of a painter, famous for the vivid colours of his works, who lost all perception of colour after a freak accident.
TBIs can cause Tourette’s. If you read through the thread, the subject of Tourette’s-related swearing had come up.
As I said in the thread, and again in this thread, I am not talking about a diagnosis for this specific person. I am talking about what’s plausible.
It’s plausible for a TBI to give someone Tourette’s - it’s actually pretty common.
It’s also plausible for a TBI to result in excessive swearing for other reasons. As I pointed out in that thread, with a citation, swearing seems to be a distinctly different neurological phenomenon than everyday conversing. Some people who cannot otherwise speak following a TBI can still swear. Most people can decide when to use cursing and when not to because we have good impulse control. The prefrontal cortex manages, among other things, impulse control, so it’s plausible that a TBI to this area of the brain could affect low-level impulse control and thus swearing.
What I wanted to know is if Tourette’s-related coprolalia necessarily involved sudden and random interjections of curse words (as some in the thread claimed), or if it could also just include copious swearing as described in the original OP. That was me, trying to figure out the answer to that question. It’s not a very google-able question, so I asked the person I know who has spent years in a professional capacity evaluating and treating tic disorders, including Tourette’s syndrome. I’m pretty satisfied with his answer. It’s not the same as a citation, but I couldn’t find one. As I mentioned upthread, only a minority of people with Tourette’s have coprolalia and and it seems only a minority of those would have coprolalia in the form described, so the research literature isn’t exactly robust.
Awesome! I love Oliver Sacks. I’ve read The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. IIRC he also has some great interviews on The Nerdist podcast.
ETA: You know what, I’m going to back up a minute here. I’m not sure if a tic disorder following TBI is necessarily Tourette’s, or if Tourette’s is mainly genetic. Tic disorders are absolutely associated with traumatic brain injuries, but I need to look deeper re: whether such tic disorders following TBI can be called Tourette’s. The best I’ve found is a paper saying people with TBIs have a higher likelihood of having Tourette’s, and some evidence that severe tics can cause TBI. So I may be conflating Tourette’s with tic disorders more generally. TBC.
Yup, Tourette’s is a neurodevelopmental disorder. It requires, at a minimum, two motor and one vocal tic for diagnosis, usually beginning in childhood or adolescence. A tic disorder is the general catch-all for motor and vocal tics that are not Tourette’s. It’s plausible that a TBI can cause two motor and one vocal tic, but it would still be a considered a tic disorder and not Tourette’s.
So, to clarify, TBIs commonly cause tic disorders (and there are other potential causes as well.)
Tourette’s is a neurodevelopmental disorder and appears to be mostly heritable.
But a tic disorder can look like Tourette’s.
And so it remains plausible that a TBI can cause excessive swearing either via a vocal tic or just generally.
Apologies for any confusion. Not an area I have a lot of familiarity with.
Oh, and I forgot to address this directly.
My friend absolutely did exhibit his Tourette’s with coprolalia and did so until the day he died. Any time he had a tic he would possibly curse. If he was already speaking when he had a tic it became very likely. Sorry I didn’t explain that clearly enough for your liking.
Right. It’s just that none of that contradicts what Stranger said. He literally said that a “TBI can certainly cause a broad number of behavioral regulation and inhibition issues.” That’s substantially the same thing your husband said in the first part of his response.
What Stranger called bullshit was “the notion that [brain damage] can be localized to a specific part of the brain for regulating cursing.” In other words, to contradict what Stranger said, Tourette’s would have to be caused by damage to the part of the brain “for regulating cursing.”
And @scabpicker, I meant the motherfucker to be me. I inserted a curse word where it wasn’t necessary ergo therefore I have Tourette’s. See? It’s a joke. We’re having so much fun.
The kind of coprolalia mentioned in the OP? Like grammatical, idiomatic, prosodical, not tic-like?
There wasn’t really a division in John’s case. If he had a tic that caused him to curse while he was already speaking, it would be inserted into the sentence in a grammatically correct way.
That doesn’t make sense because that wasn’t the subject under discussion. The subject under discussion was whether or not it was plausible that the OP’s employee had a problem with excessive cursing due to a TBI. The employee claimed that he did, and could back it up with documentation. That’s what Stranger was calling bullshit.
Anyway, there’s no sense relitigating this thread here. I intended to make a broader point about how easy it is to assume expertise, particularly on this board where people make a lot of confident statements in articulate ways. We are smart, but we are also fallible, thus a bit of humility is warranted. That’s all.
That can’t possibli be true.
Which is basically what AI tools do.
Whatever else is true, it’s a very human quirk to attach more significance or credence to statements made in that fashion
True. Though I pretty much disregard any response that uses AI.
Your post is making me think about how there is an evolutionary theory that the reason some people have such strong convictions is because you’re more likely to sway others if you genuinely believe what you’re saying. It’s not really about the truth at all, just what’s socially advantageous.
I don’t put a huge amount of stock in evolutionary psychology, but it does make sense.
One of my standard lines about explanations is precisely “… it does make sense … so it’s likely wrong.” 
Can someone swear inappropriately as a result of brain injury? Definitely. If the story is that that is the sole manifestation of their brain injury, no other behavioral disinhibition, no tics, though I’d be extremely skeptical.