Trustworthiness appraisal deficits in borderline personality disorder are associated with prefrontal cortex, not amygdala, impairment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is associated with sensitivity to signals of interpersonal threats and misplaced trust in others. The amygdala, an integral part of the threat evaluation and response network, responds to both fear- and trust-related stimuli in non-clinical samples, and is more sensitive to emotional stimuli in BPD compared to controls. However, it is unknown whether the amygdalar response can account for deficits of trust and elevated sensitivity to interpersonal threat in BPD.

Methods

Facial stimuli were presented to 16 medication-free women with BPD and 17 demographically-matched healthy controls (total n = 33). Participants appraised fearfulness or trustworthiness of the stimuli while BOLD fMRI was obtained.

Results

Though BPD parti

SUBMITTER: Fertuck EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6411618 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature