title: Executive functions in borderline personality disorder.
abstract: Different domains of executive function such as working memory and response inhibition were investigated together with elementary cognitive processes in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Patients with BPD (N=28) were compared to nonpatient controls (NP, N=28) on eight tasks (e.g. n-back, Go/NoGo, CPT-AX). In order to separate impairments in different cognitive domains and to assess the influence of more elementary cognitive processes on executive functioning, tasks were embedded in a reaction-time-decomposition approach. BPD patients solved tasks with accuracies comparable to those of nonpatients. The only exception was the n-back task, for which working memory is required: here, error rates were higher and increased more prominently in BPD patients depending on working memory load. In most tasks, movement times were shorter for BPD patients than for nonpatients, while the quality of task-solving was comparable. The faster processing in the BPD group was observable starting with the simplest task, i.e. a simple reaction-time task. These findings suggest that domains of executive functioning are differentially affected in BPD. In contrast to load-dependent deficits in working memory, response inhibition processes were unimpaired. Faster action-related processes could be observed in BPD patients in a variety of tasks; however, these did not influence executive functioning.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Psychiatry, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Meike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hagenhoff
authors.forename: Nele
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Franzen
authors.forename: Georgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Koppe
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Baer
authors.forename: Niki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Scheibel
authors.forename: Gebhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sammer
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gallhofer
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lis
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000150:complications*; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; Borderline personality disorder; Continuous performance test; Go/NoGo task; Response inhibition; Working memory; n-Back task