A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Tic Suppression in Tourette Syndrome

Abstract

Significant changes in signal intensity were seen in the basal ganglia and thalamus and in anatomically connected cortical regions believed to subserve attention-demanding tasks. The magnitudes of regional signal change in the basal ganglia and thalamus correlated inversely with the severity of tic symptoms. These findings suggest that the pathogenesis of tics involves an impaired modulation of neuronal activity in subcortical neural circuits.