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New insights into the borderline personality brain
The hallmark symptom that people describe is emotion dysregulation — you’re happy one moment, and the next moment you’re feeling angry or sad or depressed. People with BPD can cycle through emotions, usually negative ones, quite rapidly. New insights into the ‘borderline personality’ brain (link) New work by University of Toronto Scarborough researchers gives the best description yet of the neural circuits that underlie a severe mental illness called Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and could lead to better treatments and diagnosis. The work shows that brain regions that process negative emotions (for example, anger and sadness) are overactive in people with BPD, while brain regions that would normally help damp…
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Specific Brain Region Tied to Empathy
Now that we know the specific brain mechanisms associated with empathy, we can translate these findings into disease categories and learn why these empathic responses are deficient in neuropsychiatric illnesses, such as autism. Specific Brain Region Tied to Empathy (read the Article at PsychCentral) By TRACI PEDERSEN Associate News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 26, 2012 An international team of researchers has demonstrated, for the first time, that a particular area of the brain — called the anterior insular cortex — is where human empathy originates. “Now that we know the specific brain mechanisms associated with empathy, we can translate these findings into disease categories and…
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Brain Scans Clarify Borderline Personality Disorder
Using real-time brain imaging, a team of researchers have discovered that patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are physically unable to regulate emotion. Brain Scans Clarify Borderline Personality Disorder (link) By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on September 4, 2009 Using real-time brain imaging, a team of researchers have discovered that patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are physically unable to regulate emotion. The findings, by Harold W. Koenigsberg, MD, professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine suggest individuals with BPD are unable activate neurological networks that would help to control feelings. The research will be published in the journal Biological…
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New approach could more effectively diagnose personality disorders
Personality disorders could be more effectively diagnosed by identifying and targeting the disrupted neurobiological systems where the disorders originate, report Cornell researchers. New approach could more effectively diagnose personality disorders (link) February 20th, 2012 in Psychology & Psychiatry (Medical Xpress) — Personality disorders could be more effectively diagnosed by identifying and targeting the disrupted neurobiological systems where the disorders originate, report Cornell researchers. The way that these mental illnesses are now classified — based on particular patterns of thought and behavior — is misguided and has little hard evidence to support it, reports Cornell neuroscientist Richard Depue and his colleague in a special issue of the Journal of International Review…
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Mentalization and understanding the minds of others
I spoken about mentalization on this site before. Since I’ve lately been on a TED talk kick, mainly watching TED talks about neuroscience, I wanted to post this one from Rebecca Saxe which is called “How we read each other’s minds”. It is basically describing the process of mentalizing and how a certain part of the brain, the Right Temporo-Parietal Junction, is highly specialized for seeking to understand the motivations of others, the essence of mentalization. What is fascinating about this talk is her use of the pirate/cheese sandwich story with children of various ages. She demonstrates how the process of mentalization develops over time. I talked about another mentalization test (which is based on…
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Epigenetic inheritance of the negative impact of stressful events across generations
Depressive, impulsive and antisocial symptoms caused by severe chronic stress during childhood are transmitted epigenetically from one generation to the next. Epigenetic inheritance of the negative impact of stressful events across generations Depressive, impulsive and antisocial symptoms caused by severe chronic stress during childhood are transmitted epigenetically from one generation to the next. This has now been demonstrated by researchers at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. Peter Rueegg In human, chronic severe stress or traumatic experiences during childhood can lead to various psychological and mental disorders in adult life, such as borderline personality disorder and bipolar depression. A study carried out by a team under the supervision of…
