TikTok Tics: A Pandemic Within a Pandemic Olvera, Caroline; Stebbins, Glenn T.; Goetz, Christopher G. ...
Movement disorders clinical practice,
November 2021, Letnik:
8, Številka:
8
Journal Article
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ABSTRACT
Background
TikTok is a social media platform where users create and share videos. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, the use of this site greatly expanded. Tic and Tourette syndrome content also ...increased dramatically along with the number of patients with tics in neurology clinics.
Objectives
We compared the phenomenology of “TikTok tics” to typical tic disorders. We chose to analyze the most widely viewed videos and therefore focused on the most popular content creators.
Methods
Videos with the keywords “tic,” “Tourette,” or “tourettes” were reviewed to identify content creators between March 11, 2020 and March 30, 2021. We performed a quantitative assessment of TikTok tics as well as a descriptive analysis of the entire series of videos of each content creator.
Results
The mean age of the cohort was 18.8 years old, and the majority were women. Unlike the predominance of facial movements in typical tics, arm movements were most frequent. Average tics per minute was 29, and almost all recorded TikTok tics were severe, causing significant disability. Whereas coprolalia and self‐injurious behavior are only infrequently encountered in typical tic disorders, they were present in the overwhelming majority of TikTok subjects.
Conclusions
TikTok tics are distinct from what is typically seen in patients with Tourette syndrome, although share many characteristics with functional tics. We believe this to be an example of mass sociogenic illness, which involves behaviors, emotions, or conditions spreading spontaneously through a group. A modern clinician needs to remain abreast of social media sources as knowledge of media content is essential in managing patients in the current environment.
OBJECTIVETo evaluate microstructural characteristics of the corpus callosum using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and their relationships to cognitive impairment in Parkinson disease (PD).
...METHODSSeventy-five participants with PD and 24 healthy control (HC) participants underwent structural MRI brain scans including DTI sequences and clinical and neuropsychological evaluations. Using Movement Disorder Society criteria, PD participants were classified as having normal cognition (PD-NC, n = 23), mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI, n = 35), or dementia (PDD, n = 17). Cognitive domain (attention/working memory, executive function, language, memory, visuospatial function) z scores were calculated. DTI scalar values, including fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD), were established for 5 callosal segments on a midsagittal plane, single slice using a topographically derived parcellation method. Scalar values were compared among participant groups. Regression analyses were performed on cognitive domain z scores and DTI metrics.
RESULTSParticipants with PD showed increased AD values in the anterior 3 callosal segments compared to healthy controls. Participants with PDD had significantly increased AD, MD, and RD in the anterior 2 segments compared to participants with PD-NC and most anterior segment compared to participants with PD-MCI. FA values did not differ significantly between participants with PD and participants with HC or among PD cognitive groups. The strongest associations for the DTI metrics and cognitive performance occurred in the most anterior and most posterior callosal segments, and also reflected fronto-striatal and posterior cortical type cognitive deficits, respectively.
CONCLUSIONSMicrostructural white matter abnormalities of the corpus callosum, as measured by DTI, may contribute to PD cognitive impairment by disrupting information transfer across interhemispheric and callosal–cortical projections.
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