Abstract
Background: Intense and rapidly changing mood states are a major feature of borderline
personality disorder (BPD); however, there have only been a few studies investigating
affective processing in BPD, and in particular no neurofunctional correlates of abnormal
emotional processing have been identified so far.
Methods: Six female BPD patients without additional major psychiatric disorder and
six age-matched female control subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) to measure regional cerebral hemodynamic changes following brain activity when
viewing 12 standardized emotionally aversive slides compared to 12 neutral slides,
which were presented in random order.
Results: Our main finding was that BPD subjects but not control subjects were characterized
by an elevated blood oxygenation level dependent fMRI signal in the amygdala on both
sides. In addition, activation of the medial and inferolateral prefrontal cortex was
seen in BPD patients. Both groups showed activation in the temporo-occipital cortex
including the fusiform gyrus in BPD subjects but not in control subjects.
Conclusions: Enhanced amygdala activation in BPD is suggested to reflect the intense
and slowly subsiding emotions commonly observed in response to even low-level stressors.
Borderline subjects’ perceptual cortex may be modulated through the amygdala leading
to increased attention to emotionally relevant environmental stimuli.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Biological PsychiatryAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- The Amygdala. Wiley-Liss, New York1992
- Response and habituation of the human amygdala during visual processing of facial expression.Neuron. 1996; 17: 875-887
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging of symptom provocation in obsessive-compulsive disorder.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1996; 53: 595-606
- Brain systems mediating aversive conditioning.Neuron. 1998; 20: 947-957
Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention (1999): The International Affective Picture System: Digitized photographs. Gainesville, FL: The Center for Research in Psychophysiology, University of Florida.
- Effect of blood estrogen level on cortical activation patterns during cognitive activation as measured by function MRI.Neuroimage. 2001; 13: 425-432
- Functional neuroimaging studies of depression.Annu Rev Med. 1998; 49: 341-361
- Prefrontal cortical-amygdalar metabolism in major depression.Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1999; 877: 614-637
Frackowiak RSJ, Friston KJ, Frith CD, Dolan RJ, Mazziotta JC (1997): Human Brain Function. Academic Press: San Diego, 43–48.
- Cerebral blood flow.J Clin Psychiatry. 1997; 58: 16-21
- How many subjects constitute a study?.Neuroimage. 1999; 10: 1-5
- Brain regions involved in recognizing facial emotion or identity.J Neuropsychol. 1993; 5: 384-394
- Brain activity during transient sadness and happiness in healthy women.Am J Psychiatry. 1995; 152: 341-351
- A rating scale for depression.G Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1960; 23: 56-62
- Affective instability and impulsivity in personality disorder.J Affect Disord. 1997; 44: 31-37
- Affective response in borderline personality disorder—a psychophysiological approach.Am J Psychiatry. 1999; 156: 1550-1556
- Human amygdala activation detected with echo-planar functional magnetic resonance imaging.Neuroreport. 1996; 7: 1765-1769
- MR blood-oxygenation-level-dependent signal differences in parenchymal and large draining vessels. Implications for functional magnetic resonance imaging.Am J Neuroradiol. 1999; 20: 1907-1914
- Human amygdala activation during conditioned fear acquisition and extinction.Neuron. 1998; 20: 937-945
- Neural activation during selective attention to subjective emotional responses.Neuroreport. 1997; 8: 3969-3972
- Behavioral treatment and bio-behavioral assessment.in: Sidowski J.B Johnson J.H Williams T.A Technology in Mental Health Care Delivery Systems. Ablex, Norwood, NJ1980: 119-137
- The Emotional Brain. Simon and Schuster, New York1996
- Emotion processing in borderline personalty disorders.J Nerv Ment Dis. 1997; 185: 240-246
- Cognitive-Behavioural Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Guilford Press, New York1993
Loranger AW, Susman VL, Oldham HM, Russakoff LM (1996): International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE): A Structural Interview for DSM-IV and ICD-10 Personality Disorders [Mombour W et al, German translation]. White Plains, NY: New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center, Westchester Division.
Margraf J, Schneider S, Ehlers A (1994): Diagnostisches Inventar füur psychische Störungen [Diagnostic Inventory for Mental Disorders]. Berlin: Springer.
Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (1999): The MNI Brain and the Talairach Atlas. Cambridge Imagers Home Page, available at [email protected]
- Extinction of emotional learning.Neuroscience. 1993; 163 ([letter]): 109-113
- A differential neural response in the human amygdala to fearful and happy facial expressions.Nature. 1996; 383: 812-815
- Conscious and unconscious emotional learning in the human amygdala.Nature. 1998; 393: 467-470
- Regional cerebral blood flow measured during symptom provocation in obsessive-compulsive disorder using oxygen 15-labeled carbon dioxide and positron emission tomography.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1994; 51: 62-70
- Neuroimaging and the neuroanatomy of posttraumatic stress disorder.CNS Spectrums. 1998; 3: 30-41
- A symptom provocation study of posttraumatic stress disorder using positron emission tomography and script-driven imagery.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1996; 53: 380-387
- Neuroanatomical correlates of externally and internally generated human emotion.Am J Psychiatry. 1997; 154: 918-925
- Functional MRI reveals left amygdala activation during emotion.Psychiatry Res. 1997; 76: 75-82
- Mood effects on limbic blood flow correlate with emotional self-rating. A PET study with oxygen-15 labeled water.Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 1995; 61: 265-283
- State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory, Manual. Consulting Psychologist Press, Palo Alto, CA1970
- The experience and expression of anger; construction and validation of an Anger Expression Scale.in: Chesney M.A Rosenman R.H Anger and Hostility in Cardiovascular and Behavioral Disorders. Hemisphere, Washington, DC1985: 5-30
- Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain. 3-Dimensional Proportional System. Thieme, Stuttgart1988
- Functional MRI study of the cognitive generation of affect.Am J Psychiatry. 1999; 156: 209-215
- Masked presentations of emotional facial expressions modulate amygdala activity without explicit knowledge.J Neurosci. 1998; 18: 411-418
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 4,
2001
Received in revised form:
December 27,
2000
Received:
September 20,
2000
Identification
Copyright
© 2001 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
