Tourette Syndrome: Complementary Insights from Measures of Cognitive Control, Eyeblink Rate, and Pupil Diameter.

ABSTRACT: Some individuals with Tourette syndrome (TS) have severe motoric and vocal tics that interfere with all aspects of their lives, while others have mild tics that pose few problems. We hypothesize that observed tic severity reflects a combination of factors, including the degree to which dopaminergic (DA) and/or noradrenergic (NE) neurotransmitter systems have been affected by the disorder, and the degree to which the child can exert cognitive control to suppress unwanted tics. To explore these hypotheses, we collected behavioral and eyetracking data from 26 patients with TS and 26 controls between ages 7 and 14, both at rest and while they performed a test of cognitive control. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use eyetracking measures in patients with TS. We measured spontaneous

SUBMITTER: Tharp JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4484341 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature