Rajkumar Munian Govindan1, Malek I. Makki2, Benjamin J. Wilson1, Mike E. Behen3, Harry T. Chugani1
1Pediatrics, Wayne State University, Detroit, Mi, USA; 2Radiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Mi, USA; 3Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Mi, USA
Many evidences from postmortem and neuroimaging studies have implicated the involvement of fronto-striato-thalamic-cortical (FSTC) circuitry in the involvement of tic generation in children with Tourette Syndrome (TS). In this present study we used track based spatial statistics to identify abnormalities in minor white matter tract changes in 17 children with TS and compared them to 14 age-matched healthy controls. The main findings are increased water diffusivity (ADC) in parts of left external capsule and left subcolosal fasciculus. Furthermore, the mean ADC values measured from EC showed negative correlation with the tic severity score (r = -0.666, p = 0.007).