scholarly journals Stimulus valence, episodic memory, and the priming of brain activation profiles in borderline personality disorder

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Morgan Szczepaniak ◽  
Asadur Chowdury ◽  
Paul H. Soloff ◽  
Vaibhav A. Diwadkar
Keyword(s):  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Repeated Presentation ◽  
Affective Stimuli ◽  
Specific Effects

Abstract Background Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by instability in affective regulation that can result in a loss of cognitive control. Triggers may be neuronal responses to emotionally valenced context and/or stimuli. ‘Neuronal priming’ indexes the familiarity of stimuli, and may capture the obligatory effects of affective valence on the brain's processing system, and how such valence mediates responses to the repeated presentation of stimuli. We investigated the effects of affective valence of stimuli on neuronal priming (i.e. changes in activation to repeated presentation of stimuli), and if these effects distinguished BPD patients from controls. Methods Forty BPD subjects and 25 control subjects (age range: 18–44) participated in an episodic memory task during fMRI. Stimuli were presented in alternating epochs of encoding (six images of positive, negative, and neutral valence) and recognition (six images for ‘old’ v. ‘new’ recognition). Analyses focused on inter-group differences in the change in activation to repeated stimuli (presented during Encoding and Recognition). Results Relative to controls, BPD showed greater priming (generally greater decrease from encoding to recognition) for negatively valenced stimuli. Conversely, BPD showed less priming for positively valenced stimuli (generally greater increase from encoding to recognition). Conclusion Plausibly, the relative familiarity of negative valence to patients with BPD exerts an influence on obligatory responses to repeated stimuli leading to repetition priming of neuronal profiles. The specific effects of valence on memory and/or attention, and consequently on priming can inform the understanding of mechanisms of altered salience for affective stimuli in BPD.

Influence of emotional distraction on working memory performance in borderline personality disorder

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (10) ◽  
pp. 2181-2192 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Krause-Utz ◽  
N. Y. L. Oei ◽  
I. Niedtfeld ◽  
M. Bohus ◽  
P. Spinhoven ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Dissociative States ◽  
Healthy Participants ◽  
Emotional Distraction

BackgroundEmotion dysregulation, characterized by heightened emotional arousal and increased emotional sensitivity, is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although current theories emphasize the disruptive potential of negative emotions on cognitive functioning in BPD, behavioral and neurobiological data on this relationship are still lacking.MethodUsing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), neural activity was investigated in 22 unmedicated BPD patients and 22 healthy participants (matched for age, education and intelligence) performing an adapted Sternberg working memory task, while being distracted by emotional (negatively arousing) and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS).ResultsEmotional distraction was associated with significantly higher activation in the amygdala and decreased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), extending findings of previous studies in healthy individuals. Patients with BPD showed significantly longer reaction times (RTs) along with significantly higher activation in the amygdala and insula during emotional distraction compared to healthy participants, suggesting that they were more distracted by emotional pictures during the working memory task. Moreover, in the group of BPD patients, a significant negative correlation was found between activation in limbic brain regions and self-reports of current dissociative states.ConclusionsOur findings suggest hyper-responsiveness to emotionally distracting pictures in BPD patients that negatively affects working memory performance. This stresses the importance of emotion dysregulation in the context of cognitive functioning. Moreover, our findings suggest that dissociative states have a dampening effect on neural reactivity during emotional challenge in BPD.

scholarly journals Associations between age and cortisol awakening response in patients with borderline personality disorder

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliane Rausch ◽  
Elisa Flach ◽  
Angelika Panizza ◽  
Romuald Brunner ◽  
Sabine C. Herpertz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Cortisol Awakening Response ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Control Factors ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Adolescents And Adults

AbstractPatients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often display increased stress vulnerability, which may be linked to altered hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis functioning. Corresponding deviations of the cortisol awakening response (CAR) are presumed to mirror maladaptive neuroendocrine processes, which may explain why CARs are increased compared to healthy controls (HC). Prior research speculated that these alterations may be caused by early life stress and/or chronic stress related to the ongoing burden of the disorder. Yet, it remains to be investigated how BPD influences CAR in the course of development. Therefore, the current study examined CAR in female adolescents and adults with BPD compared to HC with a particular focus on associations with age. These potential associations were especially focused, as it was hypothesized that the CAR would be even more elevated (i.e., higher) in older individuals with BPD. CAR was assessed in 54 female individuals with BPD (aged 15–40 years) and 54 sex-, age-, and intelligence-matched HC (aged 15–48 years). Group differences were investigated and analyses of covariance using age as continuous predictor were performed to analyze potential developmental associations with CAR alongside BPD-specific effects. Pearson’s correlations were calculated to examine associations between CAR and age. Analyses were repeated with potential confounders as control factors. Results not only demonstrated increased CARs in female individuals with BPD compared to HC but demonstrated elevated CARs with increasing age in BPD individuals exclusively. Effects remained stable after controlling for potential confounders. Thereby, findings suggest that endocrine alterations in BPD may reinforce with increasing age and BPD chronicity.

Evidence for default mode network dysfunction in borderline personality disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (10) ◽  
pp. 1746-1754
Author(s):  
Salvatore Aguilar-Ortiz ◽  
Pilar Salgado-Pineda ◽  
Daniel Vega ◽  
Juan C. Pascual ◽  
Josep Marco-Pallarés ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Default Mode Network ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Previous History ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Default Mode ◽  
History Of

AbstractBackgroundAlthough executive and other cognitive deficits have been found in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), whether these have brain functional correlates has been little studied. This study aimed to examine patterns of task-related activation and de-activation during the performance of a working memory task in patients with the disorder.MethodsSixty-seven DSM-IV BPD patients and 67 healthy controls underwent fMRI during the performance of the n-back task. Linear models were used to obtain maps of within-group activations and areas of differential activation between the groups.ResultsOn corrected whole-brain analysis, there were no activation differences between the BPD patients and the healthy controls during the main 2-back v. baseline contrast, but reduced activation was seen in the precentral cortex bilaterally and the left inferior parietal cortex in the 2-back v. 1-back contrast. The patients showed failure of de-activation affecting the medial frontal cortex and the precuneus, plus in other areas. The changes did not appear to be attributable to previous history of depression, which was present in nearly half the sample.ConclusionsIn this study, there was some, though limited, evidence for lateral frontal hypoactivation in BPD during the performance of an executive task. BPD also appears to be associated with failure of de-activation in key regions of the default mode network.

Psychopharmacologic Management of Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder

1988 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 355-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul S. Links ◽  
Meir Steiner
Keyword(s):  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Antipsychotic Drugs ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Axis I ◽  
Few Data

This paper reviews recent literature on the psychopharmacologic management of borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients and discusses an approach to drug therapy. Five randomized controlled trials have shown positive, but non-specific effects of antipsychotic drugs on the symptoms suffered by BPD patients. There were too few data on other types of drugs to draw any conclusion. We propose that BPD patients be treated on the basis of being in a state or episode of co-existing Axis I disorder.

scholarly journals Enhanced emotion-induced amnesia in borderline personality disorder

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (7) ◽  
pp. 971-981 ◽  
Author(s):  
RENÉ HURLEMANN ◽  
BARBARA HAWELLEK ◽  
WOLFGANG MAIER ◽  
RAYMOND J. DOLAN
Keyword(s):  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Cognitive Dysfunction ◽  
Anterograde Amnesia ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Emotional Stimuli ◽  
Clinical Investigations ◽  
Biological Concepts ◽  
Negative Stimuli

Background. Current biological concepts of borderline personality disorder (BPD) emphasize the interference of emotional hyperarousal and cognitive functions. A prototypical example is episodic memory. Pre-clinical investigations of emotion–episodic memory interactions have shown specific retrograde and anterograde episodic memory changes in response to emotional stimuli. These changes are amygdala dependent and vary as a function of emotional arousal and valence.Method. To determine whether there is amygdala hyper-responsiveness to emotional stimuli as the underlying pathological substrate of cognitive dysfunction in BPD, 16 unmedicated female patients with BPD were tested on the behavioural indices of emotion-induced amnesia and hypermnesia established in 16 healthy controls.Results. BPD patients displayed enhanced retrograde and anterograde amnesia in response to presentation of negative stimuli, while positive stimuli elicited no episodic memory-modulating effects.Conclusion. These findings suggest that an amygdala hyper-responsiveness to negative stimuli may serve as a crucial aetiological contributor to emotion-induced cognitive dysfunction in BPD.

The Impact of Social Exclusion on “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Performance in Relation to Borderline Personality Disorder Features

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Savage ◽  
Mark F. Lenzenweger
Keyword(s):  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Social Instability ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Ostracism ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Impact

In this study we used the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) to explore facial emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder (BPD). We also used Cyberball, a computerized task designed to mimic social ostracism, to examine the response of BPD-feature participants to social exclusion. Seventeen individuals with BPD features were compared to 16 healthy controls on RMET performance pre- and post-exclusion via Cyberball. Our results revealed a significant interaction between BPD-feature status and RMET performance in relation to neutral stimuli following a social exclusion experience. BPD participants' ability to correctly identify neutral faces significantly decreased following exclusion. This finding suggests that once an individual with BPD features experiences a social exclusion event, his or her objectivity decreases and affective valence is ascribed to stimuli previously perceived as neutral. Our results may help to explain, in part, the social instability seen in BPD.

scholarly journals Anomalous Amygdala Habituation to Unpleasant Stimuli Among Unmedicated Individuals With Borderline Personality Disorder and a History of Self-Harming Behavior

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Kim E. Goldstein ◽  
Abigail Feinberg ◽  
Morgan B. Corniquel ◽  
Jake R. Szeszko ◽  
Antonia S. New ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Borderline Personality Disorder ◽  
Personality Disorder ◽  
Diagnostic Criteria ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Borderline Personality ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Amygdala Activation ◽  
Affective Stimuli ◽  
Amygdala Activity ◽  
History Of

Self-harming behavior (SB) is one of the diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, it is not exhibited by all individuals with BPD. Furthermore, studies examining the neural correlates of SB in BPD are lacking. Given research showing that BPD patients have difficulty habituating to affective stimuli, this study investigated whether anomalous amygdala activation is specific to BPD patients with SB. The authors used fMRI to compare amygdala activation in BPD patients with SB (n = 15) to BPD patients without SB (n = 18) and healthy controls (n = 32) during a task involving pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures, presented twice. BPD patients with SB demonstrated greater amygdala activity during the second presentation of unpleasant pictures. Results highlight neurobiological differences in BPD patients with and without SB and suggest that anomalous amygdala habituation to unpleasant stimuli may be related to SB.

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