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Enhanced habit formation in Tourette syndrome: dopamine release and striatal disinhibition modulate shortcut connections in a hierarchical model of cortico-basal ganglia loops

View ORCID ProfileCarolin Scholl, View ORCID ProfileJavier Baladron, View ORCID ProfileJulien Vitay, View ORCID ProfileFred H. Hamker
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.08.430235
Carolin Scholl
1Chemnitz University of Technology, Straße der Nationen 62, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany
2Max Planck School of Cognition, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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Javier Baladron
1Chemnitz University of Technology, Straße der Nationen 62, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany
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Julien Vitay
1Chemnitz University of Technology, Straße der Nationen 62, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany
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Fred H. Hamker
1Chemnitz University of Technology, Straße der Nationen 62, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany
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  • ORCID record for Fred H. Hamker
  • For correspondence: fred.hamker@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de
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Abstract

In the Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, tics are often considered as habitual responses towards unwanted premonitory urges. Support for the relationship between tics and habits comes from devaluation protocols, which reveal that unmedicated Tourette patients show an increased tendency towards responses to devalued outcomes. We use a neuro-computational model of hierarchically organized cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loops to shed more light on enhanced habit formation of Tourette patients. In our model, habitual behavior emerges from cortico-thalamic shortcut connections, where enhanced habit formation can be linked to faster plasticity in the shortcut or to a stronger feedback from the shortcut to the basal ganglia. Irregular activity in such shortcut connections may have different pathophysiological origins. Based on our model, we explore decreased local striatal inhibition, which may correspond to a loss of inhibitory interneurons, and increased dopaminergic modulation of striatal medium spiny neurons as causes for irregular shortcut plasticity or activation. Both lead to higher rates of response towards devalued outcomes in our model, similar to what is observed in Tourette patients. Our results support the view of tics in Tourette syndrome as maladaptive habits. We suggest to reveal more shortcuts between cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical loops in the human brain and study their potential role in the development of the Tourette syndrome.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted February 16, 2021.
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Enhanced habit formation in Tourette syndrome: dopamine release and striatal disinhibition modulate shortcut connections in a hierarchical model of cortico-basal ganglia loops
Carolin Scholl, Javier Baladron, Julien Vitay, Fred H. Hamker
bioRxiv 2021.02.08.430235; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.08.430235
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Enhanced habit formation in Tourette syndrome: dopamine release and striatal disinhibition modulate shortcut connections in a hierarchical model of cortico-basal ganglia loops
Carolin Scholl, Javier Baladron, Julien Vitay, Fred H. Hamker
bioRxiv 2021.02.08.430235; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.08.430235

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