Vol. 4, Iss. 1, Special Section: Cognitive-Behavioral and Neuroscientific Approaches to Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Phenomena
Marc E. Lavoie, Tina V. Imbriglio, Emmanuel Stip, and Kieron P. O'Connor, (2011). Neurocognitive Changes Following Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment in Tourette Syndrome and Chronic Tic Disorder. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy: Vol. 4, Special Section: Cognitive-Behavioral and Neuroscientific Approaches to Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Phenomena, pp. 34-50.
doi: 10.1521/ijct.2011.4.1.34

Neurocognitive Changes Following Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment in Tourette Syndrome and Chronic Tic Disorder

Marc E. Lavoie1, Tina V. Imbriglio1, Emmanuel Stip1, Kieron P. O'Connor2

1 Université de Montréal, Canada Centre de Recherche Fernand-Seguin de l'Hôpital Louis-H Lafontaine.

2 Université de Montréal, Canada; Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada; Centre de Recherche Fernand-Seguin de l'Hôpital Louis-H Lafontaine.

Address correspondence to Marc E. Lavoie, Ph.D Associate research professor of Psychiatry. Université de Montreal. Centre de Recherche Fernand Seguin, Louis-H Lafontaine Hospital. 7331 Hochelaga Street, Montréal, QC. Canada, H1N 3V2. E-mail: .

This work was supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) operating grant (MOP5 7936) and a Fonds pour la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ) clinical research grant (5271) awarded to MEL, KPO, and ES. We wish to express our gratitude to Marie-Claude Pélissier, Frederic Aardema, Anick Laverdure, Ariane Fontaine, and Valérie Poulin for research coordination and clinical screening to Martine Germain for electrophysiological recordings, and Geneviéve Thibault, Sophie Lecourse, Maria-Teresa Hernandez, Cathy Léveillé, and Anne-Marie Daost for neuropsychometric testings. At last but not the least, we thank all participants for their precious contribution in this study.



Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (GTS) is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by multiple fluctuating motor tics and one or more phonic tics. Various treatments have been administered with limited success to patients with GTS. For more than 40 years, the medication of choice has generally been neuroleptic medication. However, unwanted side effects often occur. For those patients, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies (CBT) have shown some success. CBT is considered an effective adjunct to medication, but the cognitive and cerebral effect of CBT has not so far been explored within a GTS population. The current research focuses on the hypothesis that significant symptom improvements in GTS, following CBT, will relate to cerebral activity changes. The aim of our research program was to compare motor Event-Related Potentials (ERP) recorded pre- and post-CBT in a population of GTS. We recorded the electroencephalogram (EEG) and derived the ERPs of 10 GTS patients, matched with 14 controls on the basis of laterality, age and intelligence. A traffic light task was administered to extract ERPs related to response processing. Results revealed that GTS had reduced cortical activation related to the inhibition of responses, which normalized following CBT. The treatment may induce cerebral changes that significantly improve both motor performances and brain activity.