Neurophysiological activity following rewards and losses among female adolescents and young adults with borderline personality disorder.

Summary & key facts

Researchers recorded brain waves from female adolescents and young adults with borderline personality disorder and from healthy peers while they played a simple guessing game that gave wins and losses equally. People with borderline personality disorder showed a smaller brain response that usually distinguishes wins from losses. When researchers looked at different rhythms in the brain waves, healthy people had stronger very slow rhythms after wins than the borderline group did. The study suggests reward processing is different in young people with borderline personality disorder, but it does not prove these brain differences cause the disorder and it only tested females using a lab task.

Key facts:

• The study measured electrical brain activity while female adolescents and young adults with borderline personality disorder and healthy peers completed a guessing game where they won and lost money equally.
• People with borderline personality disorder showed a smaller difference between wins and losses in a brain signal called the reward positivity, which normally gets bigger after winning than after losing.
• Researchers separated the recorded brain waves into rhythms and found that very slow waves (called delta, below about 3 cycles per second) were sensitive to wins, while slightly faster waves (called theta, about 4 to 7 cycles per second) were tied to losses.
• Healthy control participants showed larger delta responses to wins than the participants with borderline personality disorder did.
• The groups did not differ in delta responses to losses, and they did not differ in theta responses to wins or losses, so the main group difference was specific to delta power for wins.
• These findings suggest altered reward processing may be part of the biology of borderline personality disorder and could help with early detection or focused treatments, but the results are limited to the specific group studied and do not prove cause and effect.

Abstract

= 33). Participants completed a guessing task wherein they won and lost money at equal frequencies while electroencephalogram (EEG) data were acquired. Adolescents and young adults with BPD showed a smaller differentiation between wins and losses in the reward positivity (RewP) relative to HCs. Using time-frequency decomposition, we isolated distinct frequency bands sensitive to wins (delta = < 3Hz) and losses (theta = 4 Hz to 7 Hz). Compared with BPD participants, HCs showed significantly larger delta power to wins, specifically. The groups did not differ in delta power to losses, nor theta power to wins or losses. Collectively, findings implicate altered reward processing in the pathophysiology of BPD and may inform early identification and targeted intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Topics

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Mental Health Research Topics Personality Disorders and Psychopathology

Categories

Clinical Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Audiology Borderline personality disorder Clinical psychology Developmental psychology Economics Electroencephalography Intervention (counseling) Law Management Medicine MEDLINE Neurophysiology Personality Political science Psychiatry Psychology PsycINFO Social psychology Task (project management) Young adult