Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 156, Issue 2 , Pages 139-149, 15 November 2007

Size abnormalities of the superior parietal cortices are related to dissociation in borderline personality disorder

  • Eva Irle

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Göttingen, Von-Siebold-Str. 5, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +49 551 398950; fax: +49 551 3912712.
    • ,
  • Claudia Lange

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Göttingen, Von-Siebold-Str. 5, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany
    • ,
  • Godehard Weniger

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Göttingen, Von-Siebold-Str. 5, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany
    • ,
  • Ulrich Sachsse

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Göttingen, Von-Siebold-Str. 5, D-37075 Göttingen, Germany
    • Psychiatric State Hospital of Lower Saxony, Göttingen, Germany

Received 20 June 2006; received in revised form 16 January 2007; accepted 28 January 2007.

Abstract 

Recent evidence suggests that borderline personality disorder (BPD) is related to reduced size of the parietal lobe. Dissociative symptoms occur in the majority of individuals with BPD. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (3D-MRI) was used to assess volumes of the superior (precuneus, postcentral gyrus) and inferior parietal cortices in 30 young women with BPD who had been exposed to severe childhood sexual and physical abuse and 25 healthy control subjects. Compared with control subjects, BPD subjects had significantly smaller right-sided precuneus (−9%) volumes. The left postcentral gyrus of BPD subjects with the comorbid diagnosis of dissociative amnesia (DA) or dissociative identity disorder (DID) was significantly increased compared with controls (+13%) and compared with BPD subjects without these disorders (+11%). In BPD subjects, stronger depersonalization was significantly related to larger right precuneus size. Possibly, larger precuneus size in BPD is related to symptoms of depersonalization. Increased postcentral gyrus size in BPD may be related to the development of DA or DID in the presence of severe childhood abuse.

Keywords: Precuneus, Postcentral gyrus, Inferior parietal cortex asymmetry, Structural magnetic resonance imaging (3D-MRI), Trauma, Psychotic symptoms

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PII: S0925-4927(07)00032-7

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2007.01.007

Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 156, Issue 2 , Pages 139-149, 15 November 2007

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