| Abstract No.: | A-C1116 |
| Country: | Canada |
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| Title: | TOURETTE: NUCLEUS ACCUMBENS VOLUME REDUCTION AND SOMATOSENSORY CORTICAL THINNING |
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| Authors/Affiliations: | 4 Cherine Fahim*; 1 Samir Das; 1 Uicheul Yoon; 3 Oliver Lyttelton; 3 John Chen; 2 Rozie Arnaoutelis; 5 Kirk Frey; 2 Alan Evans;
1 5. McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada; 2 McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada; 3 McGill University; McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, QC, Canada; 4 McGill University; University of Montreal, QC, Canada; 5 Mental Health Research Institute, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan, USA
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| Content: | Objective: The main goal of this study was to assess brain morphometry (cortical thickness and gray matter density) in adolescents with Tourette syndrome (TS), taking sex and age into account.
Materials and Methods: 66 scans were acquired from 34 TS and 32 normal controls (NC), using morphological magnetic resonance imaging. Brain morphology was assessed using the fully automated CIVET pipeline at the Montreal Neurological Institute. TS was assessed using the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, Yale Global Tic Severity Scale and the Goetz Tic Scale.
Results: (1) significant nucleus accumbens volumetric decrease in TS patients (16%) and thinning of the somatosensory cortex relative to NC (p=0.01); (2) neuroanatomical correlates of TS differ significantly between TS boys and girls in brain regions, considered as part of the complex interconnected neural circuitry involved in TS symptomatology; (3) basal ganglia volume was increasing with age in TS boys, yet, decreasing in TS girls. In addition to significant decrease in the fronto-parietal cortical mean thickness in TS with age relative to NC was noted.
Conclusion: TS revealed important thinning in brain regions particularly involved in the somatosensory/motor bodily representations which may play an important role in tics. Gender differences may reflect differential aetiological factors, which have significant clinical and epidemiological relevance in TS and should be considered in developing and using preventive, diagnostic, or therapeutic interventions. Finally, it is important to note that the inconsistency found in neuroimaging studies on TS may result from including males and females and also different ages within the same study population.
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