Alterations in the fronto-limbic network and corpus callosum in borderline-personality disorder

Abstract

Neuroimaging research provides evidence of grey matter changes in the prefrontal-limbic network in borderline personality disorder (BPD), yet research scarcely examines the white matter (WM) within this circuitry. The present study aimed to explore WM in prefrontal-limbic brain networks within BPD. Quantitative diffusion tensor imaging (DTI-MRI) measures of fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusion (MD) were used to analyze the neural pathways in fifteen individuals with BPD (M = 25, SD = 6.76), in comparison to thirteen healthy individuals (M = 27.92, SD = 8.41). Quantitative DTI-MRI measures of FA and MD were evaluated for the cingulum, the fornix, the corpus callosum (CC), the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and the uncinate fasciculus (UF). Lower FA values for both the left and the right cingulum, the genu, body, and splenium of the CC, left ILF and right SLF were found in BPD, compared to healthy individuals. MD values were higher for the genu and splenium of the CC in BPD. The findings indicate that a large-scale emotional brain network is affected in BPD with alterations in MD and FA of WM prefrontal-limbic pathways of the heteromodal association cortex involved in emotion processing and emotion regulation.