Georg Groen

Response inhibition in borderline personality disorder : event-related potentials in a Go/Nogo task

Summary.Borderline personality disorder (BPD) has been related to a dysfunction of anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex and has been associated clinically with impulsivity, affective instability, and significant interpersonal distress. We examined 17 patients with BPD and 17 age-, sex-, and education matched control participants with no history of Axis I or II psychopathology using event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants performed a hybrid flanker-Go/Nogo task while multichannel EEG was recorded. Our study focused on two ERP components: the Nogo-N2 and the Nogo-P3, which have been discussed in the context of response inhibition and response conflict. ERPs were computed on correct Go trials (button press) and correct Nogo trials (no button press), separately. Groups did not differ with regard to the Nogo-N2. However, BPD patients showed reduced Nogo-P3 amplitudes. For the entire group (n = 34) we found a negative correlation with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-10) and Becks’s depression inventory (BDI).The present study is the first to examine Nogo-N2 and Nogo-P3 in BPD and provides further evidence for impaired response inhibition in BPD patients.

Semantic and syntactic processes during sentence comprehension in patients with schizophrenia: evidence from event-related potentials

Language and thought disorders are core symptoms in schizophrenia. We therefore studied language comprehension processes in patients with schizophrenia and control subjects during a sentence processing paradigm using event-related potentials (ERPs). In the ERP, assignment of syntactic structure to a string of words is reflected by an early left anterior negativity (ELAN) at about 80 ms after stimulus onset. Integration of syntactic and semantic information into a coherent representation is indexed by a positive potential at 600 ms (P600). Amplitudes of the ELAN and the P600 components are higher for grammatically incorrect sentences. Semantic processes are associated with a negative deflection peaking at 400 ms (N400). N400 amplitude is higher in semantically incongruent sentences. Nineteen patients with DSM IV schizophrenia and 19 healthy controls were presented with correct, semantically incorrect (semantic mismatch) and grammatically incorrect sentences (syntactic mismatch). Syntactic mismatch elicited an ELAN component in both subject groups. However, only controls but not patients with schizophrenia exhibited a P600 syntactic mismatch effect. Semantic mismatch was associated with a larger N400 potential which did not differ between groups. These results suggest that patients with schizophrenia are not impaired in syntactic structure assignment as reflected by the ELAN, but show deficits in semantic-syntactic integration processes underlying the P600.

Electrophysiological evidence for reduced inhibitory control in depressed patients in partial remission: A Go/Nogo study

Major depressive disorder (MDD) can be characterized by a wide-ranging profile of cognitive deficits including attention, memory, and executive functions which is possibly due to reduced volumes and a hypometabolism of the anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. We examined 21 patients with MDD in partial remission and 21 age-, sex-, and education matched healthy controls using event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants performed a hybrid flanker Go/Nogo task while multichannel EEG was recorded. Two ERP components were of interest which repeatedly have been linked to response inhibition: the Nogo-N2 and the Nogo-P3 which can be observed in Nogo trials of a Go/Nogo task. MDD patients showed a specifically reduced Nogo-P3 while the Nogo-N2 and the P3b in Go trials were unaffected. These results provide further evidence of impaired response monitoring and control processes in patients with MDD.

It's all about money: oral contraception alters neural reward processing.

Mating preferences in phases of the natural menstrual cycle with a low probability to conceive have been associated with lower interest in characteristics promising genetic benefits but increased search for safety and future security. We hypothesized that this effect would also be evident under oral contraception and may therefore alter neural processing of monetary rewards as a proxy for potential safety. Our aim was to assess the activation of reward-related brain areas using a monetary incentive task in women with functional MRI (fMRI). We compared fMRI activation of 12 young women taking oral contraceptives with 12 women with a natural hormonal cycle in their follicular phase during the expectation of monetary rewards. Women under hormonal contraception who have already shown decreased anterior insula activation upon erotic stimulation in a previous study of the same sample now showed enhanced activation during monetary reward expectation in the anterior insula/inferior lateral prefrontal cortex (t=2.84; P<0.05) relative to young normal cycling women in the follicular phase. Our finding supports the notion that the switch in mating preferences related to different hormonal states in women is mirrored by a switch in the stimulus-dependent excitability of reward-related brain regions. Beyond highlighting hormonal effects on reward processing, our data underline the importance of monitoring hormonal states in fMRI research in women.

Electrophysiological Evidence for a Syntactic but Not a Semantic Deficit in Patients with Major Depression

Cognitive deficits are common in patients with major depression. The present study investigated whether these impairments also comprise language processes such as sentence comprehension. We studied four language-related evoked potentials (early left anterior negativity [ELAN], N400, left anterior negativity [LAN], and P600) in 14 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) in partial remission and 14 matched healthy controls using a sentence paradigm with correct, semantic mismatching, and syntactic mismatching sentences. In contrast to controls, patients showed no significant P600 effect when comparing syntactic mismatching and correct sentences. No group differences could be observed for the ELAN, N400, and LAN components. The missing P600 effect may indicate deficits in the cognitive domain of language processing in depressive patients or impairment of a more general process to detect deviances from regularities. How this result integrates into the concept of a general cognitive deficit in major depr...

Differential Neural Processing of Social Exclusion and Inclusion in Adolescents with Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Young Adults with Borderline Personality Disorder

Introduction Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a symptom of borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, NSSI often occurs independently of BPD. Altered neural processing of social exclusion has been shown in adolescents with NSSI and adults with BPD with additional alterations during social inclusion in BPD patients. Aims of this study were to investigate differences in neural processing of social inclusion and exclusion situations between adolescents with NSSI and young adults with BPD and NSSI. Methods Using fMRI, neural processing of positive and negative social situations (paradigm: “Cyberball”) was explored. Participants were 14 adolescents with NSSI, but without BPD (Mage = 15.4; SD = 1.9), 15 adults with BPD and NSSI (Mage = 23.3; SD = 4.1), as well as 15 healthy adolescents (Mage = 14.5; SD = 1.7), and 16 healthy adults (Mage = 23.2; SD = 4.4). Results Behavioral results showed enhanced feelings of social exclusion in both patient groups as compared to healthy controls but only the NSSI group showed enhanced activation during social exclusion versus inclusion compared to the other groups. While both NSSI and BPD groups showed enhanced activation in the ventral anterior cingulate cortex during social exclusion as compared to their age-matched controls, enhanced activation during social inclusion as compared to a passive watching condition was mainly observed in the BPD group in the dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and the anterior insula. Discussion While neural processing of social exclusion was pronounced in adolescents with NSSI, BPD patients also showed increased activity in a per se positive social situation. These results might point toward a higher responsiveness to social exclusion in adolescents with NSSI, which might then develop into a generalized increased sensitivity to all kinds of social situations in adults with BPD.