# Longitudinal Study of Brain Imaging and Cognitive Markers of Tourette Syndrome in Children

> **NIH NIH R01** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $728,957

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Chronic tic disorders (referred to here as Tourette syndrome: TS) are complex and often serious neurodevelopmental
disorders characterized by motor and/or vocal tics. Tics are brief, repetitive, unwanted movements or noises, which can
severely impinge upon quality of life. While TS was once thought to be relatively rare, recent epidemiological studies find
that 1-6% of all children meet criteria for a chronic tic disorder, making it a significant public health problem. Typically in
TS, tics begin around age 5-7 years old, peak in severity around age 10-12 years, and improve throughout adolescence
into adulthood. However, not all patients show this improvement during adolescence, as ~30% continue to experience
significant impairment into adulthood. Thus, the years during and immediately following peak symptom severity
represent a critical time for TS, during which individuals may show considerable improvement or not. Surprisingly little
research has targeted this critical developmental stage of TS. Moreover, longitudinal investigations of predictors of TS
outcome have focused primarily on single variables (e.g., caudate nucleus volume or tic severity). Yet there is
considerable evidence that the neurobiology of TS is quite complex, involving interactions within and between multiple
brain networks. For example, our preliminary findings demonstrate stronger brain functional connectivity among
cognitive control networks and motor networks, as well as altered white and gray matter volumes in prefrontal and
subcortical regions in TS. Using this complex information may be more informative for understanding tic severity
changes and predicting clinical outcome.
We propose a longitudinal study in which we will capture the developmental stage of TS with the greatest likelihood of
change in tic severity (beginning at age 10-12 years), and will follow these children to track the development of brain and
cognitive features, and how they relate to symptom change, over time. To capture the complex neurobiology of TS, we
will collect whole-brain resting state functional connectivity, structural MRI, cognitive, and clinical data from a group of
children with TS. We will compare these children to tic-free controls (from the NIH's ABCD Study Washington
University site subject pool), as comparison to typical development will be essential for interpreting longitudinal changes
in TS. We will target diagnostic differences and developmental changes in specific functional brain networks, regional
brain volumes, and cognitive abilities. We will also use multivariate machine learning methods to unify this rich dataset to
classify and make predictions about individual children. This approach analyzes complex patterns of multidimensional
data rather than single variables, providing the potential for clinical utility and to contribute converging evidence about
mechanism. Identifying mechanisms underlying symptom change will provide insight into why man...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9991926
- **Project number:** 5R01MH118217-02
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Deanna Jacquelyn Greene
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $728,957
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-08 → 2021-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9991926

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9991926, Longitudinal Study of Brain Imaging and Cognitive Markers of Tourette Syndrome in Children (5R01MH118217-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9991926. Licensed CC0.

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