'Brain training' overcomes tics in Tourette syndrome, study finds

Tourettespr
17 Apr 2014 12:05:30.617

PA106/14

Children with Tourette Syndrome (TS) may unconsciously train their brain to more effectively control their tics, a study led by experts at The University of Nottingham has confirmed.

Teenagers diagnosed with TS were slower than their typically developing peers when asked to perform a task that involved them simply moving their eyes to look at targets. However, they significantly outperformed their peers when the task was more demanding and required them to choose between looking at or away from targets. In this task they were as fast as their peers but made fewer eye movements in the wrong direction.

The study, published in the British Journal of Neuropsychology, showed that the children with TS who performed the best on the most demanding task were also those who had fewer tics.

Click here for full story

Breaking the pattern

Professor Georgina Jackson, in the Institute of Mental Health, said: “A healthy child is not continuously worrying about unpredictably doing something embarrassing but a child with TS is often anxious that the unintentional movements or noises they make will draw attention to themselves.’

”They can devote considerable time and effort every day trying to delay or conceal these movements in class, and it can be exhausting. Yet, when we ask them to complete a difficult control task like ours which requires them to be really careful if they are not to make mistakes we find that they are very good.”

Professor Jackson added: “When presented with a stimulus which we find interesting, it is a natural human response to want to look at it. Often when asked to purposefully not look our eyes will momentarily glance towards it for a fraction of a second before our brain corrects the behaviour.”

Tourette syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes involuntary noises and movements called tics. These can range from eye blinking, mouth opening and throat clearing, to more complex sequences of movements such as head-shaking, scratching and gestures and repeated phrases.

Tics start in early childhood — typically between five and seven years of age — and peak between the ages of eight and 12 years old before becoming less frequent and severe for many sufferers.

TS can often also be associated with other conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The children in the current study did not have a diagnosis of ADHD. ADHD is associated with impairments on demanding control tasks such as the one used in this study. 

Motor control

Experts still don’t know exactly what causes the disorder, but it is thought to be linked to abnormalities with some parts of the brain, including the basal ganglia, which helps regulate the body’s movements including eye movements.

It has been suggested that since TS results in tics there should also be a general impairment in controlling voluntary movements. This is not what this study finds. Although reflexive eye movements are slower, controlled movements are improved and this improvement is related to less severe tics. Previous studies by our group have suggested that this improvement in controlled movements is related to changes in the motor control regions of the brain.

“Our tasks tested which group of participants experienced the most number of these tiny errors and we found that the children with TS performed particularly well in this respect,” added Professor Jackson.

New clues to improve treatment

Participants in the study performed two tasks: one required them to repeatedly look at a target (known as pro-saccade) while the other involved shifting unpredictably between looking at an object and looking away (anti-saccade).

The study found that the TS group were around 20 milliseconds slower to initiate and complete the task when they were asked to repeatedly look at a target, compared to the control group.

However, when presented with the more complex task of switching between looking at a target and looking away from a target the study found that the children with TS made significantly less — 20 per cent less — than the control group.

There was also a strong positive correlation between the performance of these TS children and their score on the Tale Global Tic Severity Scale. The data suggests that those who showed the greatest cognitive control also exhibit lower levels of tics.

The researchers add that further studies over the longer term are needed to find out whether cognitive control measures like those used in this research could be used to predict the likely remission of tics during adolescence.

— Ends —

Our academics can now be interviewed for broadcast via our new Globelynx fixed camera facility at the University. For further information please contact a member of the Communications team on +44 (0)115 951 5798, email mediahub@nottingham.ac.uk or see the Globelynx website for how to register for this service.

For up to the minute media alerts follow us on Twitter

Notes to editors: The University of Nottinghamhas 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with campuses in China and Malaysia modelled on a headquarters that is among the most attractive in Britain’ (Times Good University Guide 2014). It is also the most popular university among graduate employers, the world’s greenest university, and winner of the Times Higher Education Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development’. It is ranked in the World's Top 75 universities by the QS World University Rankings.

Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest-ever fundraising campaign, is delivering the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future. More news…

Story credits

More information is available from Professor Georgina Jackson on +44 (0)115 823 0416, georgina.jackson@nottingham.ac.uk 

Emma Thorne Emma Thorne - Media Relations Manager

Email: emma.thorne@nottingham.ac.uk Phone: +44 (0)115 951 5793 Location: University Park

Additional resources

No additional resources for this article

Related articles

Children's cancer expert backs Lord Saatchi Cancer Bill

Published Date
Monday 14th April 2014

Grabbing attention to raise awareness of ADHD

Published Date
Tuesday 2nd September 2014

New book examines current approaches to protecting children

Published Date
Thursday 10th April 2014

Pedal power makes pounds for vital research

Published Date
Friday 5th September 2014

The teenage brain - work in progress

Published Date
Thursday 3rd April 2014

Research proves two heads are better than one

Published Date
Tuesday 8th April 2014

New centre to pioneer research into dementia

Published Date
Friday 16th May 2014

Tourette Syndrome in secondary schools: the real picture

Published Date
Monday 2nd December 2013

Researchers uncover mechanism controlling Tourette Syndrome tics

Published Date
Wednesday 11th December 2013

Media Relations - External Relations

The University of Nottingham
YANG Fujia Building
Jubilee Campus
Wollaton Road
Nottingham, NG8 1BB

telephone: +44 (0) 115 951 5798
email: pressoffice@nottingham.ac.uk