Affiliations: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Universitymedicine
Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany | Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Technical University
Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Note: [] Corresponding author: Prof. Dr. Aribert Rothenberger, Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry Universitymedicine Göttingen, von-Siebold-Str. 5, D
– 37075 Göttingen, Germany. E-mail: arothen@gwdg.de
Abstract: Motor and vocal tics are the core symptom of Tourette syndrome (TS).
Tic generation seems to develop throughout the known motor pathways. This
review focuses on functional neuroimaging in order to check this assumption.
Also it elucidates the alterations and interactions of motor networks in TS
depending on different contexts and circumstances like resting state,
spontaneous tic movements, suppression of tics and premonitory urges, voluntary
goal-oriented movements as well as electrophysiological neuronal stimulation.
In general, the primary tic generating motor network uses the basic motor
pathways differently, interacts with secondary sensorimotor networks and
neuronal systems of cognitive behavioural control in a merely hierarchical
manner, changing during neurodevelopment.
Keywords: Tic, Tourette, tic generation, motor network, neuroimaging, development
