Cited by 250Personality Disorders and PsychopathologyNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesPsychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending

Neural correlates of the use of psychological distancing to regulate responses to negative social cues: a study of patients with borderline personality disorder

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Koenigsberg, Harold W., Fan, Jin, Ochsner, Kevin N., Liu, Xun, Guise, Kevin G., Pizzarello, Scott, Dorantes, Christine, Guerreri, Stephanie +4 more·2009·Biological Psychiatry

Abstract

Background Emotional instability is a defining feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD); yet, little is understood about its underlying neural correlates. One possible contributing factor to emotional instability is a failure to adequately employ adaptive cognitive regulatory strategies such as psychological distancing.Methods To determine whether there are differences in neural dynamics underlying this control strategy between BPD patients and healthy control (HC) subjects, blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging signals were acquired as 18 BPD and 16 HC subjects distanced from or simply looked at pictures depicting social interactions. Contrasts in signal between distance and look conditions were compared between groups.Results Borderline personality disorder patients showed a different pattern of activation compared with HC subjects when looking at negative versus neutral pictures. When distancing versus looking at negative pictures, both groups showed decreased negative affect ratings and increased activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, areas near/along the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and posterior cingulate/precuneus regions. However, the BPD group showed less BOLD signal change in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and IPS, less deactivation in the amygdala, and greater activation in the superior temporal sulcus and superior frontal gyrus.Conclusions Borderline personality disorder and HC subjects display different neural dynamics while passively viewing social emotional stimuli. In addition, BPD patients do not engage the cognitive control regions to the extent that HCs do when employing a distancing strategy to regulate emotional reactions, which may be a factor contributing to the affective instability of BPD.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.06.010

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  • More studies have recently attempted to examine reappraisal of phobogenic stimuli in phobic populations or social stimuli in populations characterized by unstable social relationships, such as borderline personality disorder.

    “More studies have attempted to do this recently with work examining reappraisal of phobogenic stimuli in phobic populations (Hermann et al. 2009) or social stimuli in populations characterized by unstable social relationships, such as borderline personality disorder (Koenigsberg et al. 2009).”

    From Cognitive Reappraisal of Emotion: A Meta-Analysis of Human Neuroimaging Studies (2014) · cites this paper as Koenigsberg et al. 2009

  • Reduced ACC activation in Borderline patients is explainable by disconnection of relay centers connecting salience detection, assessment/judgments and execution.

    “Similarly, the finding of reduced ACC activation in Borderline patients (Koenigsberg et al., 2009) would according to our model be explainable in terms of disconnection of important relay centers connecting salience detection, assessment/judgments and execution.”

    From Neural network of cognitive emotion regulation—an ALE meta-analysis and MACM analysis (2014) · cites this paper as Koenigsberg et al., 2009

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  1. [41]First M Gibbon M Spitzer R Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCIP-II) 1996 Washington DC American Psychiatric Press

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Authors
Koenigsberg, H. W., Fan, J., Ochsner, K. N., Liu, X., Guise, K. G., Pizzarello, S., Dorantes, C., Guerreri, S., Tecuta, L., Goodman, M., New, A., & Siever, L. J.
Affiliations
  • James J. Peters VA Medical Center (US)
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
  • Columbia University (US)
  • Florida State University (US)
Corresponding author
Koenigsberg, Harold W.
Venue
Biological Psychiatry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2009-11
Volume
66
Issue
9
Pages
854-863
ISSN
0006-3223 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2067298445
Cited by
250
References
77
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 29
FWCI
19.07
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Biological Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH076137, R01MH077813, MH076137)
  • National Center for Research Resources (5MO1 RR00071, M01RR000071)
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD069178)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
Keywords
borderline personality disorder, psychological distancing, emotion regulation, neuroticism, neural correlates, cognitive control, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, intraparietal sulcus, amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, superior temporal sulcus
MeSH terms
Adult, Affect, Borderline Personality Disorder, Brain, Brain Mapping, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Psychological Distance, Social Perception

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