Centre for Personality Disorders, PsyQ, The Hague, The Netherlands; Erasmus University Rotterdam, Institute of Psychology, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Psychiatry Res. 2010 Mar 30;181(3):226-32. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2009.10.006. Epub 2010 Feb 12.
Emotional dysregulation is one of the key symptoms of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). In the present study it is hypothesized that borderline patients display a cortical hyper-responsivity to emotional stimuli compared with a healthy control group. Further, we aimed to examine whether BPD patients were able to suppress stimuli with negative emotional valence as well as healthy control participants could. This is the first study addressing the electrophysiological processing of emotional stimuli in BPD. The electrophysiological response to emotional information was studied among 30 BPD patients and compared with the response in 30 normal controls using event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants were shown pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System with neutral, positive, and negative valence. After performing an attentional task, the participants were asked to perform a reappraisal task. The assignment was to consciously suppress emotions that might occur after viewing pictures with an unpleasant content. Borderline patients displayed larger late positive potentials (LPP) to pictures with an unpleasant valence as compared with the control group, indicating an enhanced elaborative processing of unpleasant stimuli. However, they did not differ on the reappraisal task. Borderline patients show an enhanced emotional cortical reactivity to unpleasant stimuli as compared with a control group. This suggests an emotional dysfunctioning in BPD patients. This feature might be an important focus in the treatment of BPD.
情绪失调是边缘型人格障碍（BPD）患者的主要症状之一。本研究假设与健康对照组相比，边缘型人格障碍患者对情绪刺激表现出皮质过度反应。此外，我们旨在检查 BPD 患者是否能够像健康对照组参与者一样抑制具有负性情绪效价的刺激。这是第一项研究边缘型人格障碍患者情绪刺激的电生理处理。使用事件相关电位（ERP）技术，对 30 名 BPD 患者和 30 名正常对照组的情绪信息的电生理反应进行了研究。参与者观看了来自国际情感图片系统的具有中性、积极和消极效价的图片。在执行注意任务后，要求参与者执行再评价任务。任务是有意识地抑制观看具有不愉快内容的图片后可能出现的情绪。与对照组相比，边缘型人格障碍患者对不愉快效价的图片显示出更大的晚期正电位（LPP），表明对不愉快刺激的精细加工增强。然而，他们在再评价任务上没有差异。与对照组相比，边缘型人格障碍患者对不愉快刺激表现出增强的情绪皮质反应。这表明 BPD 患者存在情绪功能障碍。这一特征可能是 BPD 治疗的一个重要焦点。
