ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to porve the hypothesis that the etiological neuropathological defects of the Tourette's Disorder (TD) lie in a network linking the basal ganglia and the cerebrum, not at a particular single brain region. In this study, the volumes of 10 cerebral and cerebellar regions and their symmetries were measured in normal boys and TD boys by brain magnetic resonance imaging. METHODS: Brain magnetic resonance images were obtained prospectively, controlled for confounding variables(handedness, drug-effect, effect of comorbid psychiatric disorders), in 19 boys with TD and 17 age-matched normal control boys. The frontal, parietal, temporal, and the occipital lobes and the cerebellum were defined using the semi-automated Talairach atlas-based parcellation method. RESULTS: Although the smaller brain volume was taken into account, boys with TD had larger frontal lobes and reduced normal asymmetry (right>left). There were no significant differences in the regions of interest of the parietal, temporal, or the occipital lobes or the cerebellum. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that boys with TD may have neuropathological involvement in the frontal lobe. And this findings also support the hypothesis of abnormality in Cortical-Striatal-Thalamo-Cortical (CSTC) circuitry as an etiological factors of the Tourette's Disorder.