Scientists Identify Brain Malfunction Linked With Borderline Personality Disorder.

A brain malfunction associated with borderline personality disorder has been identified by researchers from Baylor College of Medicine.

The researchers describe this malfunction as a serious but common mental illness that affects a person's perceptions of the world and other people.

"This may be the first time a physical signature for a personality disorder has been identified," said Dr. P. Read Montague, professor of neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine and director of the BCM Brown Foundation Human Neuroimaging Laboratory.

The finding sprigs from a study during which 55 people with borderline personality disorder played a "trust" game with 55 normal people of the same age and social and educational status.

In the game, one player called an investor sends 20 dollars to the other, called a trustee. The investment is tripled, and the trustee splits the profits with the investor.

The trustee decides how much to send back, thus determining whether the investor recoups a profit or not. Profit requires cooperation between trustee and investor.

While the people played the game, their brains were scanned with the help of functional MRI devices and software called hyperscanning.

The scans a revealed a brain malfunction associated with the disorder, a serious but common mental illness that affects a person's perceptions of the world and other people.

"It's new and different because it's not a lesion (or injury to the brain) but it is a difference in perceiving information that comes from an interaction." That is the area where people with borderline personality disorder have the most problem," said Dr. Stuart Yudofsky, chair of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at BCM.

Last Edited by Account Deleted by User on 12/30/2016 10:56 AM