Summary: Researchers have identified a brain region, the rostro-medial prefrontal cortex, that responds differently to social rejection in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD).
This region, normally more active during rejection episodes, remains inactive in individuals with BPD characterized by increased sensitivity to rejection and emotional instability.
The finding provides a clearer understanding of the brain’s response to social rejection in BPD and may inform future diagnostic methods and therapies. Ongoing research examines the role of social rejection in various mental disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and social anxiety.
Key facts:
- A recent study identified a brain region, the rostro-medial prefrontal cortex, that normally responds to social rejection but remains inactive in individuals with BPD.
- This inaction may explain the heightened rejection sensitivity and distress experienced by those with BPD.
- The results of the study could improve future diagnosis and therapies for BPD, continuing further research into the role of social rejection in other mental disorders.
source: City College of New York
Researchers from the City College of New York, Columbia University, and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, led by CCNY psychologist Eric A. Fertuck, found that the rostro-medial prefrontal becomes more active when people are rejected by others with higher levels.
However, individuals with BPD—characterized by interpersonal rejection sensitivity and emotional instability—show no rostro-medial prefrontal cortex activity when rejected.
The brain responds with rostro-medial prefrontal rejection activity as if there is something “wrong” in the environment. This brain activity can activate an attempt to restore and maintain close social connections in order to survive and thrive. This area of the brain is also activated when people try to understand other people’s behavior in light of their mental and emotional state.
“Inactivity in the rostro-medial prefrontal cortex during rejection may explain why people with BPD are more sensitive and more affected by rejection. “Understanding why people with this debilitating and high-risk disorder experience emotional distress to rejection will help us develop more targeted therapies for BPD,” said Fertuck, associate professor at CCNY’s Colin Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership and Graduate School, CUNY.
As for the significance of the study, Fertuck noted that while previous findings in this area have been mixed, “what we’ve done is improve the specificity and resolution of our rejection score, which improves on previous studies.”
Research continues with several ongoing investigations examining the role of social rejection in a variety of mental health problems, including PTSD, depression, and social anxiety.
Fertuck heads the Social Neuroscience and Psychopathology (SNAP) Laboratory at the Colin Powell School. The laboratory is developing a collaborative research program at the interface of clinical understanding of borderline personality disorder and related psychopathology, psychotherapy research, experimental psychopathology, and social neuroscience.
About this news about neuroscience research and borderline personality disorder
Author: Jay Mwamba
source: City College of New York
Contact: Jay Mwamba – City College of New York
Image: Image credit: Neuroscience News
Original research: Free access.
“Rejection distress suppresses the medial prefrontal cortex in borderline personality disorder” by Eric A. Fertuck et al. Biological psychiatry, cognitive neuroscience, and neuroimaging
Summary
Rejection distress suppresses the medial prefrontal cortex in borderline personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by an elevated distress response to social exclusion (ie, rejection distress), the neural mechanisms of which remain unclear. Functional MRI studies of social exclusion rely on the classical version of the Cyberball task, which is not optimized for functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our aim was to elucidate the neural substrates of rejection distress in BPD using a modified version of Cyberball that allowed us to dissociate the neural response to exclusion events from its modulation by an exclusionary context.
Methods
Twenty-three women with BPD and 22 healthy control participants completed a new modification of Cyberball with 5 sets of varying probability of exclusion and assessed rejection distress after each performance. We tested group differences in the whole-brain response to exclusion events and in the parametric modulation of this response by rejection distress using a massive univariate analysis.
Results
Although rejection distress was higher in participants with BPD (Well1.40 = 5.25, p = 0.027, h2 = 0.12), both groups showed similar neural responses to exclusion events. However, as rejection distress increased, the response of the rostromedial prefrontal cortex to exclusion events decreased in the BPD group but not in the control participants. Stronger modulation of the rostromedial prefrontal cortex response by rejection distress was associated with higher trait rejection expectancies, r = −0.30, p = 0.050.
Conclusions
Increased rejection distress in BPD may result from a failure to maintain or regulate activity in the rostromedial prefrontal cortex, a key node of the mentalizing network. The inverse association between rejection distress and mentalizing-related brain activity may contribute to increased rejection anticipation in BPD.