Yue Liu1, Jishui Zhang1, Yue Zhang1, Hongwei Tian1, and Yun Peng1
Tourette syndrome (TS) is a childhood-onset neurobehavioral disorder. The present study investigate the microstructural changes of the white matter involved in children with TS by Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). This is the first study that used both Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) and Atlas-based approach to analyze DTI data of TS children.We found that FA/AD decrease and RD/MD increase in white matter tracts in cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical(CSTC) as well as basalganglia and thalamus. The positive relation between higher RD, MD and more tics and the negative correlation between higher regional FA values and fewer tics, suggests that these alterations of white matter microstructure represent adaptive reorganization of somatosensory and motor processing in TS.
