1. Neural correlates of attachment trauma in borderline personality disorder: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study
- Author
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Dan Pokorny, Tilo Kircher, Henrik Walter, Carol George, Manfred Spitzer, Martin Ruchsow, Horst Kächele, Susanne Erk, Philipp Martius, and Anna Buchheim
- Subjects
Adult ,Neuroscience (miscellaneous) ,Context (language use) ,Gyrus Cinguli ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,Developmental psychology ,Life Change Events ,Borderline Personality Disorder ,mental disorders ,medicine ,Humans ,Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging ,Borderline personality disorder ,Object Attachment ,Anterior cingulate cortex ,medicine.diagnostic_test ,Brain ,Superior temporal sulcus ,Amygdala ,medicine.disease ,Magnetic Resonance Imaging ,Temporal Lobe ,Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ,Functional imaging ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Parahippocampal Gyrus ,Female ,Functional magnetic resonance imaging ,Psychology ,Parahippocampal gyrus ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Functional imaging studies have shown that individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) display prefrontal and amygdala dysfunction while viewing or listening to emotional or traumatic stimuli. The study examined for the first time the functional neuroanatomy of attachment trauma in BPD patients using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during the telling of individual stories. A group of 11 female BPD patients and 17 healthy female controls, matched for age and education, told stories in response to a validated set of seven attachment pictures while being scanned. Group differences in narrative and neural responses to "monadic" pictures (characters facing attachment threats alone) and "dyadic" pictures (interaction between characters in an attachment context) were analyzed. Behavioral narrative data showed that monadic pictures were significantly more traumatic for BPD patients than for controls. As hypothesized BPD patients showed significantly more anterior midcingulate cortex activation in response to monadic pictures than controls. In response to dyadic pictures patients showed more activation of the right superior temporal sulcus and less activation of the right parahippocampal gyrus compared to controls. Our results suggest evidence for potential neural mechanisms of attachment trauma underlying interpersonal symptoms of BPD, i.e. fearful and painful intolerance of aloneness, hypersensitivity to social environment, and reduced positive memories of dyadic interactions.
- Published
- 2008