title: Cerebral processing of social rejection in patients with borderline personality disorder.
abstract: An intense fear of abandonment or rejection is a central feature of social relationships for individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). A total of 20 unmedicated BPD patients and 20 healthy participants (HC, matched for age and education) played a virtual ball-tossing game including the three conditions: exclusion, inclusion and a control condition with predefined game rules, whereas cerebral activity was assessed using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjective experiences of exclusion were assessed after each blocked condition. Both groups felt similarly excluded during the exclusion condition; however, BPD subjects felt more excluded than HC during the inclusion and control conditions. In all three conditions, BPD patients showed a stronger engagement of the dorsal anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex. For HC, activation in several cerebral regions such as the insula and the precuneus differed depending on the interaction situation, whereas for BPD subjects activation in these regions was not modulated by experimental conditions. Subjects with BPD differed from HC in both their subjective reactions to and their neural processing of social interaction situations. Our data suggest that individuals with BPD have difficulty in discriminating between social situations, and tend to hypermentalize during social encounters that are not determined by the intentions of others.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany and Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany melanie.domsalla@zi-mannheim.de.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Domsalla
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany and Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Georgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Koppe
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany and Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Inga
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Niedtfeld
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany and Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vollstädt-Klein
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany and Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schmahl
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany and Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bohus
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany and Department of Addictive Behaviour and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, 68072 Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D012059:Rejection, Psychology; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: borderline personality disorder; cyberball; hypermentalizing; social exclusion; social interaction