An FMRI study of frontostriatal circuits during the inhibition of eye blinking in persons with Tourette syndrome.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The authors sought to study activity in neural circuits that subserve the inhibition of a semi-involuntary motor behavior, eye blinking, in children and adults with Tourette syndrome and in healthy comparison subjects.

Method

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to scan 120 participants (51 with Tourette syndrome and 69 comparison subjects) as they either blinked normally or successfully inhibited eye blinking. The authors compared the blood-oxygen-level dependent signal during these two conditions across the Tourette and comparison groups.

Results

Relative to comparison subjects, patients with Tourette syndrome activated more strongly the frontal cortex and striatum during eye blink inhibition. Activation increased more with age in the dorsolatera

SUBMITTER: Mazzone L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4295823 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature