Cited by 131Personality Disorders and PsychopathologyNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesBipolar Disorder and Treatment

Influence of emotional distraction on working memory performance in borderline personality disorder

Krause-Utz, A., Oei, N. Y. L., Niedtfeld, I., Bohus, M., Spinhoven, P., Schmahl, C., Elzinga, B. M.·2012·Psychological Medicine

Abstract

Background: Emotion dysregulation, characterized by heightened emotional arousal and increased emotional sensitivity, is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although current theories emphasize the disruptive potential of negative emotions on cognitive functioning in BPD, behavioral and neurobiological data on this relationship are still lacking. Method: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), neural activity was investigated in 22 unmedicated BPD patients and 22 healthy participants (matched for age, education and intelligence) performing an adapted Sternberg working memory task, while being distracted by emotional (negatively arousing) and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Results: Emotional distraction was associated with significantly higher activation in the amygdala and decreased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), extending findings of previous studies in healthy individuals. Patients with BPD showed significantly longer reaction times (RTs) along with significantly higher activation in the amygdala and insula during emotional distraction compared to healthy participants, suggesting that they were more distracted by emotional pictures during the working memory task. Moreover, in the group of BPD patients, a significant negative correlation was found between activation in limbic brain regions and self-reports of current dissociative states. Conclusions: Our findings suggest hyper-responsiveness to emotionally distracting pictures in BPD patients that negatively affects working memory performance. This stresses the importance of emotion dysregulation in the context of cognitive functioning. Moreover, our findings suggest that dissociative states have a dampening effect on neural reactivity during emotional challenge in BPD.

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Crossref · 10.1017/s0033291712000153

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  • Discrepancies in amygdala findings may partly be related to differences in study design: studies observing negative correlations studied amygdala reactivity to highly aversive (trauma-related) pictures, while Kraus et al. studied amygdala activation during pain stimulation and Winter et al. used emotional words, which might have been less distressing.

    “These discrepancies may partly be related to differences in study design: studies observing negative correlations studied amygdala reactivity to highly aversive (trauma-related) pictures [55, 135, 139], while Kraus and colleagues [137] studied amygdala activation during pain stimulation and Winter et al. [60•] used emotional words, which might have been less distressing than aversive pictures (not”
  • In Krause-Utz et al. (2014), patients who reported a stronger increase of state dissociation (DSS) showed significantly lower amygdala reactivity to negative distractors.

    “Patients who reported a stronger increase of state dissociation (DSS) showed significantly lower amygdala reactivity to negative distractors [139], in line with aforementioned findings by Hazlett and colleagues [135] and theoretical models [10].”
  • Krause-Utz et al. (2014) found that BPD patients showed significantly increased amygdala activation and impaired task performance during distraction by negative and neutral interpersonal pictures but not in the control condition without distractors, suggesting increased susceptibility to social cues in BPD.

    “Patients showed significantly increased amygdala activation and impaired task performance during distraction by negative and neutral interpersonal pictures but not in the control condition without distractors, suggesting increased susceptibility to social cues in BPD [139].”
  • Three studies in BPD found lower amygdala activity in patients reporting higher dissociation, while other studies did not.

    “Three studies in BPD [55, 135, 139] found lower activity in this region in patients reporting higher dissociation, while other studies did not [60•, 137, 138].”
  • In a related study, increased activity in limbic brain regions including the amygdala, hippocampus, insula, and ACC was observed during performance on the same task, but higher levels of state dissociation at the beginning of the experiment correlated negatively with activation in the amygdala, hippocampus, ACC, and insula, suggesting reduced emotional responding among individuals experiencingdiss

    “A related study showed increased activity in limbic brain regions, including the amygdala, hippocampus, insula, and ACC during performance on the same task, however, higher levels of state dissociation present at the beginning of the experiment correlated negatively with activation in the amygdala, hippocampus, ACC, and insula, suggesting reduced emotional responding among individuals experiencing”

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Authors
Krause-Utz, A., Oei, N. Y. L., Niedtfeld, I., Bohus, M., Spinhoven, P., Schmahl, C., & Elzinga, B. M.
Affiliations
  • Central Institute of Mental Health (DE)
  • Leiden University (NL)
Corresponding author
Krause-Utz, A.
Venue
Psychological Medicine
Published
2012-03-08
Volume
42
Issue
10
Pages
2181-2192
ISSN
  • 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-8978
OpenAlex
W2064337757
Cited by
131
References
49
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 2
FWCI
15.61
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
  • Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
  • Universität Heidelberg
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Bipolar Disorder and Treatment
Keywords
borderline personality disorder, emotional distraction, working memory, emotional dysregulation, amygdala, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, insula, dissociation, emotional pictures, cognitive function
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Affective Symptoms, Analysis of Variance, Borderline Personality Disorder, Brain, Brain Mapping, Emotions, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Memory, Short-Term, Middle Aged, Photic Stimulation, Reaction Time, Task Performance and Analysis, Young Adult

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