Abstract
Tourette syndrome (TS) is a developmental neuropsychiatric disorder with onset during childhood. Because of its complex spectrum of phenotypes, the underlying pathophysiology of TS is still unclear. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated aberrant spontaneous neural synchronization in conventional frequency band (0.01–0.08 Hz) in TS. No published studies have reported abnormalities of local synchronization across different frequency bands. We estimated the alterations of local synchronization across five bands ranging from 0 to 0.25 Hz. Seventy-nine children with TS and 63 age-, sex-, and handedness-matched healthy children were recruited. Frequency-specific regional homogeneity (ReHo) and independent component analysis were used to identify functional alterations between TS and healthy children. TS patients showed significantly increased ReHo in the left precentral gyrus and decreased ReHo in the right operculum. Abnormal ReHo alterations of the superior frontal gyrus, superior parietal gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus, putamen, superior temporal gyrus, and operculum were observed in different frequency bands. TS patients showed increased connectivity of the right superior frontal gyrus within the left executive control network. In addition, a significantly negative correlation was found between Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS) vocal score and ReHo values of the right operculum in the highest frequency bands (0.198–0.25 Hz), while a significant positive correlation was found between YGTSS motor score and altered connectivity of the right superior frontal gyrus. The present study revealed frequency-specific abnormal alterations of ReHo in the whole brain and altered connectivity within the executive control network of TS children. Its neural importance and clinical practicability require further investigation.
Highlights
Tourette syndrome (TS) is a developmental neuropsychiatric disorder with an onset during childhood, defined by the co-occurrence of motor and phonic tics lasting at least 12 months
There were no significant differences in age (p = 0.599), sex (p = 0.066), and handedness (p = 0.370) between the two groups
Decreased regional homogeneity (ReHo) in the putamen and increased ReHo in the precentral gyrus in the current study indicated reduced synchronization of spontaneous neural activity in the putamen might inhibit the output nuclei of the basal ganglia, which in turn excite the precentral cortex to produce tics
Summary
Tourette syndrome (TS) is a developmental neuropsychiatric disorder with an onset during childhood, defined by the co-occurrence of motor and phonic tics lasting at least 12 months. A recent meta-analysis of task-based neuroimaging studies showed that TS patients had abnormal activation in the prefrontal, anterior cingulate, motor preparation cortices, and sensory and temporo-parietal association cortices [8]. A previous study using functional MRI (fMRI) showed abnormal functional connections in the executive control network, especially in the fronto-parietal network in TS patients [9]. This suggested that the broadly distributed involvement of multiple cortical regions or brain networks, in addition to the CSTC network, might play a critical role in TS pathophysiology
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