Fronto-limbic abnormalities in borderline personality disorder patients

Contact personCarolyn Vatheuer
In cooperation with the Universities of Maastricht, Amsterdam, Freiburg and Lübeck, Arnoud Arntz

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe mental disorder that is characterized by emotional dysregulation and impulsivity. Recent neuroimaging findings have helped to improve understanding of the neurobiology underlying BPD, with structural and functional abnormalities identified in a fronto-limbic network. However, evidence for structural alterations in emotional processing regions is inconsistent, and may be due to the heterogeneity of BPD. BPD is commonly accompanied by other disorders and it is yet to be clarified whether particular findings are specific to BPD or are related to comorbid disorders. Due to the high prevalence of co-occuring disorders, excluding those with comorbidity would result samples that are non-representative of the population. One alternative approach that has potential to offer more insight into what is specific to BPD, is to include other clinical groups as controls. Therefore, in a multicenter study, structural brain images from BPD patients and non-clinical controls were examined in order to gain insight into the specifics of volumetric abnormalities and cortical thinning patterns. A more detailed understanding of the specifics of BPD will be valuable for improving treatment of this complex disorder. This project is in its final stages.

Publications

  • Cremers, H., van Zutphen, L., Duken, S., Domes, G., Sprenger, A., Waldorp, L., & Arntz, A. (2020). Borderline personality disorder classification based on brain network measures during emotion regulation. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-020-01201-3
  • van Zutphen, L., Siep, N., Jacob, G. A., Domes, G., Sprenger, A., Willenborg, B., Goebel, R., Tuescher, O., & Arntz, A. (2020). Impulse control under emotion processing: An fMRI investigation in borderline personality disorder compared to non-patients and cluster-C personality disorder patients. Brain Imaging and Behavior, 14(6), 2107–2121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00161-0
  • Vatheuer, C. C., Dzionsko, I., Maier, S., Näher, T., van Zutphen, L., Sprenger, A., Jacob, G. A., Arntz, A., & Domes, G. (2021). Looking at the bigger picture: Cortical volume, thickness and surface area characteristics in borderline personality disorder with and without posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 311, 111283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2021.111283
  • Kaiser, D., Jacob, G. A., Domes, G., & Arntz, A. (2016). Attentional Bias for Emotional Stimuli in Borderline Personality Disorder: A Meta-Analysis. Psychopathology, 49(6), 383–396. https://doi.org/10.1159/000448624
  • Kaiser, D., Jacob, G. A., van Zutphen, L., Siep, N., Sprenger, A., Tuschen-Caffier, B., Senft, A., Arntz, A., & Domes, G. (2019). Biased attention to facial expressions of ambiguous emotions in borderline personality disorder: An eye-tracking study. Journal of Personality Disorders, 33(5), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi_2019_33_363
  • Kaiser, D., Jacob, G. A., van Zutphen, L., Siep, N., Sprenger, A., Tuschen-Caffier, B., Senft, A., Arntz, A., & Domes, G. (2020). Patients with borderline personality disorder and comorbid PTSD show biased attention for threat in the facial dot-probe task. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 101437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.11.005
  • van Zutphen, L., Siep, N., Jacob, G. A., Domes, G., Sprenger, A., Willenborg, B., Goebel, R., & Arntz, A. (2018). Always on guard: Emotion regulation in women with borderline personality disorder compared to nonpatient controls and patients with cluster-C personality disorder. Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, 43(1), 37–47. https://doi.org/10.1503/jpn.170008