I see a significant number of students with OCD or Tourette's. This article links PANDAS, a recently discovered neurological disorder due to strep infections, to a part of the brain called the basal ganglia. This is a quote from the page about PANDAS at the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health): "The children usually have dramatic, "overnight" onset of symptoms, including motor or vocal tics, obsessions, and/or compulsions. This abrupt onset is generally preceeded by a Strep throat infection. One part of the brain that is affected in PANDAS is the basal ganglia"
Dr. Neil Alpiner's paper showing MRI's of IM trained individuals showed that the basal ganglia is one of the areas that IM seems to impact. Maybe that is the reason that we sometimes see a lessening of OCD bahavior or tics with IM training. Whether or not PANDAS is the cause of the tics may not be as important as the fact that the part of the brain where the tics seem to originate may be stimulated through IM training, "healing" the injury somewhat.
