Cited by 24Personality Disorders and PsychopathologyMemory and Neural MechanismsNeural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Classical conditioning in borderline personality disorder: an fMRI study

Krause-Utz, Annegret, Keibel-Mauchnik, Jana, Ebner-Priemer, Ulrich, Bohus, Martin, Schmahl, Christian·2016·European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

Abstract

Previous research suggests disturbed emotional learning and memory in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Studies investigating the neural correlates of aversive differential delay conditioning in BPD are currently lacking. We aimed to investigate acquisition, within-session extinction, between-session extinction recall, and reacquisition. We expected increased activation in the insula, amygdala, and anterior cingulate, and decreased prefrontal activation in BPD patients. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, 27 medication-free female BPD patients and 26 female healthy controls (HC) performed a differential delay aversive conditioning paradigm. An electric shock served as unconditioned stimulus, two neutral pictures as conditioned stimuli (CS+/CS-). Dependent variables were blood-oxygen-level-dependent response, skin conductance response (SCR), and subjective ratings (valence, arousal). No significant between-group differences in brain activation were found [all p(FDR) > 0.05]. Within-group comparisons for CS+unpaired > CS- revealed increased insula activity in BPD patients but not in HC during early acquisition; during late acquisition, both groups recruited fronto-parietal areas [p(FDR) < 0.05]. During extinction, BPD patients rated both CS+ and CS- as significantly more arousing and aversive than HC and activated the amygdala in response to CS+. In contrast, HC showed increased prefrontal activity in response to CS+ > CS during extinction. During extinction recall, there was a trend for stronger SCR to CS+ > CS in BPD patients. Amygdala habituation to CS+paired (CS+ in temporal contingency with the aversive event) during acquisition was found in HC but not in patients. Our findings suggest altered temporal response patterns in terms of increased vigilance already during early acquisition and delayed extinction processes in individuals with BPD.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1007/s00406-015-0593-1

Cites

57 of 57 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Naturally occurring dissociative states (DSS4 ratings) were relatively low in some studies compared to script-driven imagery studies inducing dissociation.

    “Naturally occurring dissociative states (DSS4 ratings: mean ± standard deviation (M ± SD)) were relatively low ([137]: BPD 1.16 ± 0.28; [138] 2.14 ± 1.67) as compared to script-driven imagery studies inducing dissociation (e.g., [55]: BPDd 6.85 ± 2.03; 9-point Likert scale, 9 indicating extreme symptoms).”
  • Krause-Utz, Mauchnik, et al. (2014) found that controls but not BPD patients showed amygdala habituation during acquisition of CS+, and no significant effect of trait or state dissociation (DSS) was observed on skin conductance response or brain activity.

    “Controls but not BPD patients showed amygdala habituation during acquisition of CS+paired (CS+ in temporal contingency with the aversive event). No significant effect of trait or state dissociation (DSS) was observed, neither on skin conductance response (SCR) nor on brain activity.”

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Krause-Utz, A., Keibel-Mauchnik, J., Ebner-Priemer, U., Bohus, M., & Schmahl, C.
Affiliations
  • Leiden University (NL)
  • Heidelberg University (DE)
Corresponding author
Schmahl, Christian
Venue
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
Published
2015-03-27
Volume
266
Issue
4
Pages
291-305
ISSN
  • 0003-9373 (ISSN-L)
  • 0940-1334
  • 1433-8491
OpenAlex
W2002527784
Cited by
24
References
56
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3
FWCI
4.13
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
  • Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
Keywords
borderline personality disorder, classical conditioning, aversive conditioning, extinction, extinction recall, reacquisition, insula, amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, emotional learning, emotional memory, skin conductance response, temporal contingency
MeSH terms
Adult, Analysis of Variance, Animals, Borderline Personality Disorder, Brain, Conditioning, Classical, Female, Galvanic Skin Response, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Oxygen, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review