Tourette syndrome is a neurobehavioral disorder characterized by motor and vocal tics beginning in childhood. Previous neuroimaging investigations suggested impaired cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical activity during motor control. We hypothesized that the small-world properties of functional connectomes would be abnormal in pediatric Tourette Syndrome patients. Compared with control subjects, the Tourette Syndrome patients showed altered quantitative values in the global properties, characterized by higher path length, higher normalized characteristic path length and lower global efficiency, implying a shift toward regular networks. The Tourette Syndrome group showed decreased nodal efficiency in the posterior part of left cingulum and right putamen comparing to the controls.
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