Neural Signatures of Social Inclusion in Borderline Personality Disorder Versus Non-suicidal Self-injury

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by interpersonal disturbances and dysfunctional behavior such as non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). We recently observed neural alterations in BPD during social inclusion by enhanced activations within the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). To examine the specificity of these neural alterations, we now investigated participants with NSSI but without BPD and compared them to BPD and healthy controls (HC). Considering the association between NSSI and BPD, we further examined neural commonalities during social inclusion. Fifteen females diagnosed with BPD, 16 with NSSI and 17 HC were investigated by fMRI and the cyberball paradigm, focusing on social inclusion (p