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Updated: Jul 7, 2025

Use of a Psychophysiological Script-driven Imagery Experiment to Study Trauma-related Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder
Published on: March 8, 2018
Brain activation during an emotional task in participants with PTSD and borderline and/or cluster C personality
Inga Aarts1, Chris Vriend2, Odile A van den Heuvel2
1Sinai Centrum, Arkin, Amstelveen, the Netherlands; Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Psychiatry, Department of Anatomy and Neurosciences, Boelelaan 1117, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Introduction:
Although comorbidity of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and/or cluster C personality disorders (CPD) is common, neural correlates of this comorbidity are unknown.
Methods:
We acquired functional MRI scans during an emotional face task in participants with PTSD + CPD (n = 34), PTSD + BPD (n = 24), PTSD + BPD + CPD (n = 18) and controls (n = 30). We used ANCOVAs and Bayesian analyses on specific ROIs in a fearful vs. scrambled faces contrast. We also investigated associations with clinical measures.
Results:
There were no robust differences in brain activation between the groups with ANCOVAs. Transdiagnostically, we found a negative association between severity of dissociation and right insula and right dmPFC activation, and emotion regulation problems with right dmPFC activation. Bayesian analyses showed credible evidence for higher activation in all ROIs in the PTSD + BPD + CPD group compared to PTSD + BPD and PTSD + CPD.
Discussion:
Our Bayesian and correlation analyses support new dimensional conceptualizations of personality disorders.
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