WHITE AND GREY MATTER TOURETTE SYNDROME

To report this syndrome, and the mystery that surrounds it, is a research by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. Research carried out by MRI scanning the brains of 103 children affected by Tourette syndrome and 103 other children with the same characteristics without the disorder. What the scientists have detected is a Significantly more gray matter in the thalamus, hypothalamus and midbrain. Grey matter is the one in which the brain processes information, American researchers note. And they add that, on the other hand, they caught less white matter in the bark above the eyes and in the medial prefrontal cortex. «The white matter does in a way the wiring of the brain», they explain. It consists mostly of axons (neuron extensions ) covered with myelin and transmits signals to gray matter. Less white matter may indicate lower transmission efficiency of sensations, while the surplus of gray matter could mean that the nerve cells are sending a surplus of signals». Now, many people with Tourette syndrome explain that their tics mostly start in response to unusual sensations, as if that part of the body wasn't okay. And they add that after the tick they feel better.