Reduced GABAergic inhibition and abnormal sensory processing in children with Tourette Syndrome

Tourette Syndrome (TS) is characterized by the presence of chronic tics. Individuals with TS often report difficulty with ignoring (habituating to) tactile sensations and some patients perceive that this contributes to a "premonitory urge" to tic. While common, the physiological basis of impaired tactile processing in TS, and indeed tics themselves, remain poorly understood. It has been well established that GABAergic processing plays an important role in shaping the neurophysiological response to tactile stimulation. Further, there are multiple lines of evidence suggesting that a deficit in GABAergic transmission may contribute to symptoms found in TS. In this study, GABA-edited MRS was combined with a battery of vibrotactile tasks to investigate the role of GABA and atypical sensory processing in children with TS. Our results show reduced primary sensorimotor (SM1) GABA concentration in children with TS compared to healthy controls (HC), as well as patterns of impaired performance on tactile detection a...