Cameron Jeter
Graduate Student


Cameron hails from the Sunflower State – Kansas. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry and a minor in German from Kansas State University. Cameron joined the Sereno lab in 2005 to pursue a PhD in neuroscience.
Cameron’s thesis project aims to clarify the neural basis of tics in Tourette Syndrome children. Individuals with Tourette Syndrome experience both motor and vocal tics, which have long been described as involuntary actions. Tourette Syndrome patients, however, report the ability to suppress tics, indicating a voluntary component. Tics are experienced as irresistible urges that eventually must be expressed. Hence, many researchers studying Tourette Syndrome have described tics as uncontrolled voluntary motor processes. Consequently, it remains an open question whether tics are unwanted voluntary actions or unwanted reflexive motor processes. By measuring patient eye movements, which are controlled by similar neural circuitry as somatic motor movements, the neural circuitry of Tourette Syndrome may become more clear. Better understanding of the neural underpinnings can help in diagnosis, definition of subtypes (those with OCD, and/or ADHD also), and even treatment strategies.
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