The role of the parietal lobe in borderline personality disorder

Many patients with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder describe multi-modal hallucinations. A likely cortical origin for multi-modal hallucinations is the inferior parietal lobule. Neuropsychological testing of borderline personality disorder reveals deficits of visuospatial capacity; a function which is also localised to the inferior parietal lobule. It is hypothesised that this brain area is likely to be dysfunctional in those patients with borderline personality disorder who have multi-modal hallucinations. A deficit in the inferior parietal lobe could plausibly explain a number of other clinical features; the gender dimorphism of this disorder, the lack of expressive gesture and the specific response to clozapine. More speculatively; the increased concern over this disorder over the past 40 years could result from the normal population showing an increase in functional ability in the parietal lobe, leaving patients with parietal deficits relatively more disabled.