The functional neuroanatomy of Tourette's syndrome: an FDG-PET Study. II: Relationships between regional cerebral metabolism and associated behavioral and cognitive features of the illness
Abstract
We analyzed F-18 fluoro-deoxyglucose PET scans carried out in 18 drug-free patients with Tourette's syndrome (TS) in order to evaluate relationships between cerebral metabolism and complex cognitive and behavioural features commonly associated with this disorder. These features (obsessions and compulsions, impulsivity, coprolalia, self-injurious behavior, echophenomena, depression, and measures of attentional and visuospatial dysfunction) were associated with significant increases in metabolic activity in the orbitofrontal cortices. Similar increases, although less robust, were observed in the putamen and, in the case of attentional and visuospatial measures, in the inferior portions of the insula. On the other hand, behavioral and cognitive features were not associated with metabolic rates in other subcortical (midbrain, ventral striatum), paralimbic (parahippocampal gyrus), or sensorimotor regions (supplementary motor area, lateral premotor or Rolandic cortices), in which metabolism had, in some cases more robustly, distinguished these TS patients from controls (Braun et al., 1993). These results suggest that a subset of regions in which metabolic activity appears to be associated with the diagnosis of TS per se, may be expli...Continue Reading
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