The Tourette Association of America’s (TAA) Young Investigator Award provides up-and-coming researchers with a total of $150,000 across two years to support their groundbreaking work that will transform our understanding of TS and usher in the next era of treatment and care.
“I’m fortunate to be a past recipient of the TAA Young Investigator Award [which] is vital to ongoing research efforts in the Tourette community broadly. That award was really critical in my own career and development as a researcher and as a clinician [allowing] me to have protected time to pursue the research and to generate pilot data.” – Dr. David Isaacs – Director, Vanderbilt Medical Center’s TAA Center of Excellence
The cerebellum is an important part of the brain that helps control movement and may play a bigger role in TS than we realize. This study will look for common differences in the cerebellum’s brain circuits in children with TS compared to children without TS. In addition, this study will map features of the cerebellum that are unique to each child with TS, since every child has their own pattern of tics and influences that affect them. The goal of this research is to better understand how TS works in the brain and how it develops in children.
This study is designed to test a new, short telehealth program that provides education and support for caregivers of children with TS and other Tic Disorders. The goal is to see if the program is practical, useful, and well received by families. A team of specialists with expertise in tic treatment will work together on this pilot study. Because many families struggle to access behavioral treatment for tics, the study will also explore whether this program could serve as an effective first step to receiving care.
Currently, tics and the impact of TS is often tracked by using subjective and potentially inaccurate methods. This study will evaluate wearable devices that can automatically and precisely track motor tics to improve TS care and help set personal goals for therapy. The small, lightweight sensors will measure activity linked to the brain and muscles in real time and use software to spot patterns in tic behavior. By combining smart technology with data analysis, this project aims to improve understanding of how TS works in the brain and the muscles to better test how well treatments like behavioral therapy are working.
Many people with TS experience difficulties with decision-making and sensory processing. This can include making good choices when weighing pros and cons, as well as in sensory-seeking behaviors. This project studies how brain circuits that connect sensory areas and decision-making areas might play a role in these symptoms. Using mice with a known TS-linked gene, researchers will measure how this pathway works while the mice make reward-based choices and look for sensory stimulation. By learning more about how this circuit functions in individuals with TS, researchers can help develop new treatments.
The neurobiology underlying Tourette Syndrome has been understudied, in part, because the lack of appropriate animal models. In the current proposal, we utilize cutting edge mouse models expressing human mutations in Celsr3, a gene highly associated with Tourette Syndrome. Using these powerful genetic mouse models, we are finally able to examine and determine the neural circuitry affected in Tourette Syndrome, with the ultimate goal of identifying new targets in the brain for pharmaceutical treatment.
Every individual with Tourette Syndrome is unique with varying symptoms. Given these individual differences, the brain function underlying tics in TS is likely highly individualized. This study aims to identify individual differences in how functional brain networks coordinate and work together in TS. Using an approach to measure brain function at the individual level, by collecting hours of functional MRI data from each person, we will investigate how brain networks change between non-tic-related, pre-tic (premonitory urge), and post-tic (resolution) states. Understanding brain function underlying tics in individuals has the potential to inform personalized care and treatment in TS.
Research has long demonstrated the important role of genetic factors in the development of chronic tic disorders, including Tourette Syndrome, but how different genetic factors combine to impact an individual’s risk remains incompletely understood. This project will employ complementary genomic methods to examine the combinatorial effect of different categories of genetic changes on risk for tics and related conditions in a cohort of families where a child is diagnosed with TS or another chronic tic disorder. This research aims to advance our fundamental understanding of how different genetic factors impact risk of tic disorders.
Tic reduction is the primary outcome used to measure the effectiveness of Tourette Syndrome treatments. This practice assumes that decreasing tics is the primary treatment goal for all patients; however, prior research has highlighted several reasons that patients seek treatment outside of tic reduction. This study will interview patients and families seeking treatment for TS and those who have previously received TS treatment to learn more about reasons for seeking treatment and treatment goals. Information collected from interviews will be used to develop the first TS patient-centered outcome measure co-created by patients and researchers.
Learn more about current research and past Young Investigator Award recipients.
Find more information on the TAA’s Research & Medical efforts.
