Cortical inhibition in alexithymic patients with borderline personality disorder

Lang, Simone; Stopsack, Malte; Kotchoubey, Boris; Frick, Carina; Grabe, Hans J.; Spitzer, Carsten; Barnow, Sven

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.08.006

Cited by 22 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Our finding is also consistent with neurophysiological models of alexithymia implying alterations in interhemispheric transfer of emotional information and a right hemisphere impairment in emotion processing [ 13 , 26 – 28 ]. For example, patients with right hemispheric lesions were found to be more alexithymic than those with left-sided lesions [ 29 ].…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Even though depression, approach and avoidance behavior are common in BPD, their impact on frontal EEG asymmetry in BPD has not been studied. Nor is it entirely clear how alexithymia may contribute to frontal EEG asymmetry in BPD [ 13 , 14 ]. This could be worth studying though, because Imperatori et al recently reported an association between alexithymia and EEG power spectra and connectivity during resting state in the default-mode network with lower alpha power in the right posterior cingulate cortex and decreased alpha connectivity in non-clinical alexithymic subjects compared to non-alexithymic subjects [ 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Frontal EEG asymmetry in borderline personality disorder is associated with alexithymia

Flasbeck

Popkirov

Brüne

2017

bord personal disord emot dysregul

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BackgroundFrontal EEG asymmetry is a widely studied correlate of emotion processing and psychopathology. Recent research suggests that frontal EEG asymmetry during resting state is related to approach/withdrawal motivation and is also found in affective disorders such as major depressive disorder. Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) show aberrant behavior in relation to both approach and withdrawal motivation, which may arguably be associated with their difficulties in emotion processing. The occurrence and significance of frontal EEG asymmetry in BPD, however, has received little attention.ResultsThirty-seven BPD patients and 39 controls underwent resting EEG and completed several psychometric questionnaires. While there were no between-group differences in frontal EEG asymmetry, in BPD frontal EEG asymmetry scores correlated significantly with alexithymia. That is, higher alexithymia scores were associated with relatively lower right-frontal activity. A subsequent analysis corroborated the significant interaction between frontal EEG asymmetry and alexithymia, which was moderated by group.ConclusionsOur findings reveal that lower right frontal EEG asymmetry is associated with alexithymia in patients with BPD. This finding is in accordance with neurophysiological models of alexithymia that implicate a right hemisphere impairment in emotion processing, and could suggest frontal EEG asymmetry as a potential biomarker of relevant psychopathology in these patients.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frontal EEG asymmetry in borderline personality disorder is associated with alexithymia

Flasbeck

Popkirov

Brüne

2017

bord personal disord emot dysregul

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“…At first glance, our result of larger corpus callosum volume in Type II and Type III alexithymia compared to Lexithymics may seem to contradict the model of an interhemispheric transfer deficit in alexithymia [Hoppe and Bogen, ], which implies a lack of communication between the two hemispheres, which then gives rise to problems communicating emotions. However, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies that directly tested the time required for information to travel from one hemisphere to the other (transcallosal transmission time) found that high scores on alexithymia were associated with shorter, rather than prolonged transmission times between the hemispheres [Grabe et al, ; Lang et al, ; Romei et al, ]. The present finding of increased corpus callosum volume in Type II and Type III alexithymia could underlie this faster transcallosal transmission, possibly through increased myelination of transcallosal axons resulting in overall larger corpus callosum volume.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Neuroanatomical profiles of alexithymia dimensions and subtypes

Goerlich-Dobre

Votinov

Habel

et al. 2015

Human Brain Mapping

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Alexithymia, a major risk factor for a range of psychiatric and neurological disorders, has been recognized to comprise two dimensions, a cognitive dimension (difficulties identifying, analyzing, and verbalizing feelings) and an affective one (difficulties emotionalizing and fantasizing). Based on these dimensions, the existence of four distinct alexithymia subtypes has been proposed, but never empirically tested. In this study, 125 participants were assigned to four groups corresponding to the proposed alexithymia subtypes: Type I (impairment on both dimensions), Type II (impairment on the cognitive, but not the affective dimension), Type III (impairment on the affective, but not the cognitive dimension), and Lexithymics (no impairment on either dimension). By means of voxel-based morphometry, associations of the alexithymia dimensions and subtypes with gray and white matter volumes were analyzed. Type I and Type II alexithymia were characterized by gray matter volume reductions in the left amygdala and the thalamus. The cognitive dimension was further linked to volume reductions in the right amygdala, left posterior insula, precuneus, caudate, hippocampus, and parahippocampus. Type III alexithymia was marked by volume reduction in the MCC only, and the affective dimension was further characterized by larger sgACC volume. Moreover, individuals with the intermediate alexithymia Types II and III showed gray matter volume reductions in distinct regions, and had larger corpus callosum volumes compared to Lexithymics. These results substantiate the notion of a differential impact of the cognitive and affective alexithymia dimensions on brain morphology and provide evidence for separable neuroanatomical representations of the different alexithymia subtypes.

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“…Findings from studies in atypical populations provide additional clues on the interrelationship of empathy and emotion regulation. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterised by difficulties in regulating emotions and is also often related to atypically high levels of affective empathy (Fertuck, Lenzenweger, Clarkin, Hoermann, & Stanley, 2006;Lang et al, 2011). Individuals with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) often exhibit poor performance on measures of cognitive empathy, and also show evidence of higher levels of emotion dysregulation (Konstantareas & Stewart, 2006) and increased use of maladaptive regulation strategies (Samson, Huber, & Gross, 2012).…”

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confidence: 99%

How Cognitive and Affective Empathy Relate to Emotion Regulation: Divergent Patterns from Trait and Task-Based Measures

Thompson

Reekum

Chakrabarti

2019

Preprint

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Evidence suggests that empathy and emotion regulation may be related, but few studies have directly investigated this relationship. Here we report two experiments which examined: 1) how different components of empathy (cognitive & affective) relate to the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal to regulate emotions (N=220), and 2) how these components of empathy relate to implicit reappraisal in a context-framing task (N=92). In study 1, a positive correlation between cognitive empathy and reappraisal use was observed. Affective empathy showed no relationship with reappraisal use. In study 2, participants completed an implicit reappraisal task in which previously viewed negative images were paired with either a neutralising (intended to reduce negative emotionality) or descriptive (which simply described the image) framing sentence. Participants then reported how unpleasant/pleasant each image made them feel. In contrast to study 1, a positive correlation between affective empathy and the implicit reappraisal task metric (rating of neutralising-descriptive framing conditions) was observed. There was no relationship between cognitive empathy and implicit reappraisal. These findings suggest that both components of empathy are related to reappraisal, but in different ways: Cognitive empathy is related to more deliberate use of reappraisal, while affective empathy is associated with more implicit reappraisal processes.

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Cortical inhibition in alexithymic patients with borderline personality disorder

Cited by 22 publications

References 50 publications

Frontal EEG asymmetry in borderline personality disorder is associated with alexithymia

Frontal EEG asymmetry in borderline personality disorder is associated with alexithymia

Neuroanatomical profiles of alexithymia dimensions and subtypes

How Cognitive and Affective Empathy Relate to Emotion Regulation: Divergent Patterns from Trait and Task-Based Measures

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