Poster No:
335
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Julia Schmidgen1, Theresa Heinen2, Stephan Bender1
Institutions:
1University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, 2Research Center Juelich, Juelich, Germany
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
Tourette Syndrome (TS) is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by involuntary, repetitive motor and vocal tics. This study investigated functional brain network differences between 23 drug-naïve children with TS and 23 age-matched healthy controls, aged 7–13 years.
Methods:
High density EEG data were recorded during a motor contingent negative variation (CNV) involving a warning stimulus (S1) indicating movement direction followed by an imperative stimulus (S2) that required a fast motor response. Relative phase-locking values (rPLV) in theta, alpha and beta frequency bands were analyzed using graph theory metrics, focusing on path lengths and local/global clustering coefficients.
Results:
Relative to controls, participants with TS showed no significant deficits in motor performance related to task accuracy. During early processes of anticipatory mechanisms and sensorimotor integration (200 to 500 ms post S1), children with TS exhibited significantly reduced theta and alpha connectivity (p < 0.01), particularly between parietal and frontal regions. Graph-theoretic measures revealed increased global path lengths and reduced local clustering coefficients, indicating impaired network efficiency and local integration. Late motor preparatory processes (200 to 0 ms prior to S2) in participants with TS were characterized by increased alpha connectivity within central regions (p>0.05) related to motor control.
Conclusions:
These findings provide evidence of disrupted functional network organization in TS, characterized by reduced network efficiency during sensorimotor integration, and altered central connectivity preceding motor execution. The increased central alpha connectivity prior to motor execution may reflect adaptive compensatory mechanisms that facilitate perception-action coupling and optimize motor readiness or neural adaptations resulting from the constant demand for inhibitory control in TS (Jurgiel et al., 2021).
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Neurodevelopmental/ Early Life (eg. ADHD, autism) 1
Higher Cognitive Functions:
Executive Function, Cognitive Control and Decision Making
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Connectivity (eg. functional, effective, structural) 2
Motor Behavior:
Motor Planning and Execution
Perception, Attention and Motor Behavior:
Perception: Visual
Keywords:
Computational Neuroscience
Cortex
Development
Electroencephaolography (EEG)
Motor
Systems
Tourette's Syndrome
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
By submitting your proposal, you grant permission for the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) to distribute your work in any format, including video, audio print and electronic text through OHBM OnDemand, social media channels, the OHBM website, or other electronic publications and media.
I accept
The Open Science Special Interest Group (OSSIG) is introducing a reproducibility challenge for OHBM 2025. This new initiative aims to enhance the reproducibility of scientific results and foster collaborations between labs. Teams will consist of a “source” party and a “reproducing” party, and will be evaluated on the success of their replication, the openness of the source work, and additional deliverables. Click here for more information.
Propose your OHBM abstract(s) as source work for future OHBM meetings by selecting one of the following options:
I do not want to participate in the reproducibility challenge.
Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Task-activation
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Patients
Was this research conducted in the United States?
No
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
Yes
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel?
NOTE: Any animal studies without IACUC approval will be automatically rejected.
Not applicable
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
EEG/ERP
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
Other, Please list
-
MNE, networkx (Python)
Provide references using APA citation style.
Jurgiel, J., Miyakoshi, M., Dillon, A., Piacentini, J., Makeig, S., & Loo, S. K. (2021). Inhibitory control in children with tic disorder: aberrant fronto-parietal network activity and connectivity. Brain communications, 3(2), fcab067.
No