Abnormalities in cortical gray matter density in borderline personality disorder

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Borderline personality disorder (BPD) significantly impacts cognitive, affective, and social functioning.
• Neuroimaging aids in understanding the biological underpinnings of BPD.
• Previous research has not fully elucidated cortical gray matter differences in BPD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whole-cortex gray matter density (GMD) alterations in BPD patients compared to healthy controls (HC).
• To identify specific brain regions affected by GMD changes in BPD.

Main Methods:

• Utilized magnetic resonance-based cortical pattern matching.
• Assessed GMD in 26 BPD patients and 26 age- and sex-matched HC.
• Analyzed data for significant differences in GMD between groups.

Main Results:

• BPD patients showed widespread lower cortical GMD (4% difference) compared to HC.
• Key areas of reduced GMD included frontal, orbitofrontal, cingulate, parietal, temporal, and visual cortices.
• While dorsal anomalies were symmetric, the left hemisphere showed wider GMD reduction in mesial regions; some right-hemisphere regions had increased GMD.

Conclusions:

• BPD is associated with distinct cerebral morphology affecting cognitive and emotional processing.
• Observed structural differences align with known clinical and functional deficits in BPD.
• Findings contribute to understanding the neurobiological basis of BPD.