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Updated: May 7, 2026

Use of a Psychophysiological Script-driven Imagery Experiment to Study Trauma-related Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder
Published on: March 8, 2018
Dissociable brain correlates for depression, anxiety, dissociation, and somatization in
Erwin Lemche1, Simon A Surguladze1, Michael J Brammer2
11Section of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry,Institute of Psychiatry,London,UK.
Objective:
The cerebral mechanisms of traits associated with depersonalization-derealization disorder (DPRD) remain poorly understood.
Method:
Happy and sad emotion expressions were presented to DPRD and non-referred control (NC) subjects in an implicit event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) design, and correlated with self report scales reflecting typical co-morbidities of DPRD: depression, dissociation, anxiety, somatization.
Results:
Significant differences between the slopes of the two groups were observed for somatization in the right temporal operculum (happy) and ventral striatum, bilaterally (sad). Discriminative regions for symptoms of depression were the right pulvinar (happy) and left amygdala (sad). For dissociation, discriminative regions were the left mesial inferior temporal gyrus (happy) and left supramarginal gyrus (sad). For state anxiety, discriminative regions were the left inferior frontal gyrus (happy) and parahippocampal gyrus (sad). For trait anxiety, discriminative regions were the right caudate head (happy) and left superior temporal gyrus (sad). Discussion The ascertained brain regions are in line with previous findings for the respective traits. The findings suggest separate brain systems for each trait.
Conclusion:
Our results do not justify any bias for a certain nosological category in DPRD.
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