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<td><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:20px;font-weight:bold;">PsyPost – Psychology News Daily Digest (Unofficial)</span></td>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/psilocybin-boosts-mind-perception-but-doesnt-reduce-atheism/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Psilocybin boosts mind perception but doesn’t reduce atheism</a>
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<p><p>A recent study published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2024.2346130"><em>Journal of Psychoactive Drugs</em></a> found that while psychedelic experiences increased mind perception across various entities, they did not significantly change individuals’ Atheist-Believer status.</p>
<p>The relationship between psychedelics and belief systems has long fascinated researchers, particularly the possibility that psychedelics like psilocybin might alter spiritual or religious beliefs. Previous cross-sectional studies suggested that psychedelic experiences could lead to shifts in metaphysical beliefs or religious identifications, with some participants reporting increased spirituality and reduced atheism after using these substances. However, these earlier studies had various biases, such as relying on retrospective accounts and self-selection among participants already interested in belief changes.</p>
<p>Sandeep M. Nayak and colleagues addressed these limitations by conducting a prospective longitudinal study to assess how psilocybin, a well-known psychedelic, impacts belief systems and mind perception.</p>
<p>The researchers conducted a prospective longitudinal study, recruiting 657 participants who had planned to undergo a psilocybin experience outside of controlled laboratory settings. The recruitment materials did not mention belief changes to avoid priming participants about potential outcomes related to their spiritual or religious views.</p>
<p>Participants were asked to complete surveys at multiple time points: during informed consent (baseline), two weeks before their scheduled psilocybin experience, 2-4 weeks after the experience, and again 2-3 months later. These surveys collected a wide range of data, including demographic information and specifics related to their psilocybin use, such as dosage, setting, and ingestion method, and assessments of mind perception (e.g., attribution of consciousness to various living and non-living entities), metaphysical beliefs (e.g., materialism, dualism), and Atheist-Believer status (non-believer, agnostic, or believer).</p>
<p>The mind perception scale measured participants’ views on the conscious experience of various entities, ranging from non-human animals and plants to inanimate objects like rocks. The metaphysical beliefs scale included items that assessed participants’ views on the nature of reality, such as whether they believed in dualism (the separation of mind and body) or materialism (the belief that all phenomena have a material explanation). The Atheist-Believer scale captured participants’ religious affiliations or spiritual beliefs before and after the psilocybin experience.</p>
<p>The results revealed an increase in participants’ attribution of consciousness to various living and non-living entities following their psilocybin experience, particularly non-human primates, quadrupeds (e.g., dogs and cats), insects, fungi, and plants. These shifts in mind perception were evident both at the 2-4 week follow-up and again at 2-3 months.</p>
<p>Participants who were psychedelic-naive—those experiencing psilocybin for the first time—showed greater increases in mind perception than those with prior psychedelic experience. In contrast, there was little to no change in participants’ metaphysical beliefs; the belief that mind and body are distinct (dualism) or that material phenomena stem from the mind (idealism) remained stable. A small increase in determinism (the belief that events are pre-determined) was observed at the 2-3 month follow-up.</p>
<p>Participants’ Atheist-Believer status also remained unchanged, with no significant shifts in the proportions of non-believers, agnostics, or believers, contradicting earlier studies that suggested psilocybin might increase spirituality or reduce atheism. Overall, the findings suggest that psilocybin’s effect on mind perception is stronger than its influence on core spiritual or philosophical beliefs.</p>
<p>Of note is that this study lacked a non-psychedelic control group, making it harder to distinguish whether the observed changes were specifically due to psilocybin.</p>
<p>The research, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2024.2346130">Psychedelic Experiences Increase Mind Perception but do not Change Atheist-Believer Status: A Prospective Longitudinal Study</a>”, was authored by Sandeep M. Nayak, Sydney H. White, Samantha N. Hilbert, Matthew X. Lowe, Heather Jackson, Roland R. Griffiths, Albert Garcia-Romeu, and David B. Yaden.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/scientists-discover-troubling-brain-changes-in-covid-19-patients-who-lost-sense-of-smell/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Scientists discover troubling brain changes in COVID-19 patients who lost sense of smell</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 25th 2024, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-69772-y"><em>Scientific Reports</em></a> sheds light on long-term neurological consequences of COVID-19. Researchers found that individuals who had anosmia (the loss of smell) during COVID-19 showed alterations in brain functionality and even physical structure during recovery. This study is among the first to link COVID-19-related loss of smell to significant brain changes.</p>
<p>COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has been primarily known for its impact on the respiratory system. However, over time, many patients, even those with mild cases, reported cognitive issues such as memory problems, confusion, and difficulties with concentration, which raised concerns about the virus’s effects on the brain. Neurological symptoms like headaches, brain fog, and loss of smell emerged as common issues for COVID-19 survivors.</p>
<p>Anosmia, the loss of smell, became one of the earliest and most recognizable symptoms of COVID-19, often occurring suddenly. While most patients recovered their sense of smell after a few weeks, some experienced longer-lasting olfactory dysfunctions. Previous research also suggested that loss of smell could signal broader neurological involvement in diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Given the commonality of anosmia in COVID-19 and its potential implications for brain health, the researchers sought to explore whether loss of smell during COVID-19 was associated with any measurable brain changes in recovering patients.</p>
<p>“Our laboratory studies the neurobiological mechanisms underlying complex social behavior and decision-making. During the pandemic, it was very challenging to halt our experimental activities due to health restrictions,” said study author <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/lab/neuroCICS-Laboratorio-de-Neurociencia-Social-y-Neuromodulacion-Pablo-Billeke">Pablo Billeke</a> of the Center for Research in Social Complexity at the University for Development in Chile.</p>
<p>“In this context and given the early reports of neurological symptoms in patients affected by COVID-19, we wanted to contribute from our unique perspective to understanding the potential damage caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection in the central nervous system. This led us to initiate this study, in which we evaluated recovered COVID-19 patients using structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging while they performed decision-making and cognitive control tasks, as well as tracking their evolution with electroencephalography.”</p>
<p>To investigate these possible brain changes, the research team recruited 100 adults in Santiago, Chile, who had recovered from respiratory infections between February 2020 and May 2023. The final sample included 73 participants who had confirmed cases of COVID-19 (the remaining participants had respiratory infections caused by other agents, as confirmed by multiple negative PCR tests). The team used a combination of tests and brain scans across two sessions to assess these participants’ brain function and structure.</p>
<p>The participants ranged in age from 19 to 65, and none had severe cases of COVID-19 that required ventilators or intensive care. The study specifically excluded anyone with neuropsychiatric disorders or severe brain injuries, ensuring that the observed effects could be linked to their infection rather than prior conditions.</p>
<p>In behavioral tests, participants with a history of anosmia displayed more impulsive decision-making compared to those who did not lose their sense of smell. These individuals tended to change their choices more rapidly after receiving negative feedback, particularly in tasks requiring them to learn and adapt to changing probabilities of rewards. While this impulsivity led to higher earnings in decision-making tasks that involved rapidly shifting conditions, it also highlighted an alteration in how their brains processed rewards and risks.</p>
<p>Functionally, patients with a history of anosmia showed decreased brain activity during decision-making tasks in regions associated with evaluating choices, including the lateral prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal regions.</p>
<p>On the structural side, brain scans showed thinning in specific regions of the brain in participants with a history of anosmia. Most notably, these changes were observed in the parietal areas of the brain, which are responsible for processing sensory information and managing spatial awareness. The thinning in these areas could indicate long-term structural changes in the brain caused by the virus in individuals who experienced loss of smell.</p>
<p>Additionally, these participants exhibited decreased white matter integrity, particularly in white matter tracts that connect important brain regions. White matter plays a crucial role in facilitating communication between different parts of the brain, and disruptions in these connections could lead to a range of cognitive impairments.</p>
<p>“In the current context, where we know that a significant percentage of the population has contracted COVID-19 at some point, it is crucial to identify the factors that may make certain individuals more susceptible to developing brain alterations after infection,” Billeke told PsyPost. “Our study found that individuals who lost their sense of smell during the acute infection exhibited detectable changes in brain structure and showed a particular pattern in decision-making tasks involving learning.”</p>
<p>“Specifically, they made more impulsive decisions when the environmental context changed. While this may not necessarily have long-term consequences, it could serve as an early marker to monitor individuals who experienced loss of smell, helping to determine whether they are more susceptible to developing neurodegenerative alterations. This is particularly relevant when other risk factors, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and genetic predisposition, are present, all of which are linked to the development of neurodegenerative diseases.”</p>
<p>Interestingly, these brain changes were less pronounced in patients with more severe respiratory symptoms, such as those requiring hospitalization, suggesting that anosmia might be a more reliable indicator of neurological involvement than respiratory symptom severity.</p>
<p>“What surprised us the most was how consistent the findings were in patients with anosmia compared to other patients, regardless of the severity of their respiratory symptoms,” Billeke said. “These individuals exhibited detectable alterations at the behavioral level and in brain function and structure, affecting white matter and gray matter.”</p>
<p>While the study provides valuable insights, it has limitations. First, it relied on self-reported symptoms of anosmia and used the KOR test, a validated screening tool for olfactory deficits associated with COVID-19, to confirm the presence of olfactory dysfunction. More objective and comprehensive clinical assessments would provide stronger evidence.</p>
<p>Additionally, the study lacked baseline brain scans from before the participants contracted COVID-19. This makes “it difficult to establish a direct causal relationship between the infection and our findings,” Billeke explained. “However, when considered alongside the current body of evidence from other studies that have used databases or tracked individuals for different reasons, we can determine that the virus does indeed cause alterations at the neural level.”</p>
<p>“Thus, the correlations we found can be viewed in existing literature as potential evidence of a causal link between the virus and the observed effects. However, the exact mechanism by which the virus produces this damage at the brain level is still under investigation.”</p>
<p>Looking ahead, the researchers plan to follow up with these participants over time to see if the observed brain changes persist or if they affect daily life. They also aim to explore potential therapies, such as brain stimulation techniques, to help those experiencing lingering cognitive and neurological effects after COVID-19.</p>
<p>“We aim to identify the oscillatory patterns related to these alterations, which is the focus of our ongoing electroencephalography (EEG) studies,” Billeke said. “The data are currently being analyzed. By identifying these altered oscillatory patterns, we hope to develop brain stimulation therapies that could help alleviate these symptoms, such as transcranial electrical or magnetic stimulation.”</p>
<p>“I would like to extend my gratitude to all the participants who voluntarily came to the study for all their sessions and to all the researchers who worked tirelessly, especially during the most challenging times of the pandemic lockdown,” Billeke added.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-69772-y">Patients recovering from COVID-19 who presented with anosmia during their acute episode have behavioral, functional, and structural brain alterations</a>,” was authored by Leonie Kausel, Alejandra Figueroa-Vargas, Francisco Zamorano, Ximena Stecher, Mauricio Aspé-Sánchez, Patricio Carvajal-Paredes, Victor Márquez-Rodríguez, María Paz Martínez-Molina, Claudio Román, Patricio Soto-Fernández, Gabriela Valdebenito-Oyarzo, Carla Manterola, Reinaldo Uribe-San-Martín, Claudio Silva, Rodrigo Henríquez-Ch, Francisco Aboitiz, Rafael Polania, Pamela Guevara, Paula Muñoz-Venturelli, Patricia Soto-Icaza, and Pablo Billeke.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/sensory-overload-study-shows-adults-with-adhd-have-greater-sensitivity-to-touch/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Sensory overload: Study shows adults with ADHD have greater sensitivity to touch</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 25th 2024, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <a href="https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-024-06002-9"><em>BMC Psychiatry</em></a> provides insights into how adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) process tactile information differently from neurotypical adults. Researchers found that adults with ADHD were more sensitive to touch stimuli, both in self-reports and experimental conditions. These findings suggest that individuals with ADHD might experience sensory overload related to touch, and this sensitivity appears to be specifically linked to inattention symptoms.</p>
<p>ADHD is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that affects both children and a significant number of adults. The core symptoms include inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. While sensory sensitivities are widely discussed in ADHD self-help literature, empirical research on the topic is limited, especially for adults. Previous studies have mostly focused on children and relied heavily on self-reports or parent observations, rather than direct scientific measurements.</p>
<p>The researchers aimed to fill this gap by conducting an empirical investigation into how touch sensitivity might be altered in adults with ADHD. They sought to explore whether heightened sensitivity to touch could be linked to the difficulties with attention and hyperactivity that characterize ADHD. By comparing both subjective (self-reported) and objective (experimentally measured) tactile sensitivity between adults with ADHD and neurotypical adults, they aimed to understand the relationship between sensory sensitivity and ADHD symptoms more clearly.</p>
<p>“Touch sensitivity in ADHD is widely reported in clinics and even on social media and ADHD self-help sites, but there hasn’t been much empirical research on this aside from self-reports or parent-reports, and most of the research on ADHD in general is focused on children,” said study author Morgan Frost-Karlsson, a PhD student at Linköping University.</p>
<p>“ADHD often persists into adulthood and can significantly impact everyday functioning, so we thought it was important to investigate touch sensitivity in adults with an experimental study to see if we could find evidence for touch sensitivity and if it was related to core ADHD symptoms (inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity).”</p>
<p>The study involved 51 adults—27 with ADHD and 24 neurotypical controls. The ADHD participants were recruited from a psychiatric clinic and had all been diagnosed with ADHD by a psychiatrist. None of the participants had co-occurring psychiatric disorders or major health concerns, and all participants were asked to refrain from taking ADHD medication for 24 hours before participating in the study. Neurotypical participants were matched by age and gender with the ADHD participants. Both groups completed questionnaires about their ADHD symptoms and touch sensitivity.</p>
<p>To objectively measure tactile sensitivity, the researchers used a technique called somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs). SEPs are brainwave patterns that occur in response to sensory stimuli, in this case, electrical stimulation of the radial nerve in the arm. The intensity of the electrical stimulation was adjusted for each participant to ensure it was tolerable but not painful.</p>
<p>Participants were subjected to three types of touch conditions: self-touch, where they stroked their own arm; other-touch, where the experimenter stroked the participant’s arm; and object-touch, where participants stroked an inanimate object. The electrical stimulation was delivered at the same time as the touch conditions, and brain activity was recorded using electrodes placed on the scalp and neck.</p>
<p>In addition to SEPs, participants also completed a task called the QbTest, which is designed to measure inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. The researchers then analyzed the relationship between the participants’ ADHD symptoms, their tactile sensitivity, and their brain activity in response to the touch stimuli.</p>
<p>The researchers found clear differences between the adults with ADHD and the neurotypical controls. First, participants with ADHD reported higher sensitivity to touch than neurotypical participants, supporting the idea that adults with ADHD experience sensory overload more acutely. They also showed lower tolerances for electrical stimulation, meaning they found it more uncomfortable at lower levels of intensity compared to the neurotypical participants.</p>
<p>In terms of brain activity, adults with ADHD exhibited more significant reductions in SEP amplitudes during both self-touch and other-touch conditions compared to the neurotypical group. This suggests that individuals with ADHD experience greater difficulty integrating touch stimuli, which may indicate sensory overload. Interestingly, these differences were not observed during the object-touch condition, implying that the differences are related to touch that involves the body, whether self-generated or from another person.</p>
<p>“We expected to see a greater difference in brain activation between self-touch and touch by another person in the ADHD group compared to the neurotypical group (as we found in our previous MRI study), but instead we found the ADHD group had a greater decrease in activation overall for both conditions,” Frost-Karlsson told PsyPost.</p>
<p>“We suspect that this is because the ADHD group experienced sensory overload with both the stimulus and the stroking occurring at the same time and had more difficulty integrating the tactile information (in a similar manner as, anecdotally, patients may have trouble ignoring the seams of their socks or the tags in their clothing). Correlations between inattention symptoms and brain activation support this explanation.”</p>
<p>Moreover, the study found that greater differences in brain activity (as reflected by SEP amplitudes) were correlated with higher self-reported ADHD symptom severity, particularly inattention. This suggests that the difficulty individuals with ADHD have in processing tactile information may be closely linked to their inattention symptoms. While the study did not find strong links between hyperactivity symptoms and tactile sensitivity, the relationship between inattention and touch sensitivity was clear.</p>
<p>“As far as we know, this is the first time touch sensitivity has been experimentally studied in adult ADHD,” Frost-Karlsson said. “We found that ADHD symptoms and touch sensitivity are directly linked, both neurally and behaviorally. We also found evidence of tactile sensory overload in ADHD and an indication that it is specifically linked to inattention.”</p>
<p>The research sheds new light on the relationship between tactile sensitivity and ADHD in adults. However, it is not without limitations. One such limitation is the homogeneity of the sample. In other words, the ADHD participants were relatively similar to one another. Specifically, they were high-functioning adults without other common issues like psychiatric disorders or substance abuse, which are often seen in people with ADHD.</p>
<p>“In order to have a well-controlled study, we needed to exclude participants who had comorbid diagnoses,” Frost-Karlsson explained. Additionally, those who participated needed to be able to schedule and attend the study appointment, remember not to take their medication for 24 hours before the appointment, and understand all of the written and verbal instructions.”</p>
<p>“This excludes much of the ADHD population, as ADHD is highly comorbid with other psychiatric syndromes and those with more severe ADHD have difficulty planning and keeping appointments. Therefore, the generalizability of our results is limited to a very homogeneous subgroup of those with ADHD.”</p>
<p>Future research could build on these findings by exploring tactile sensitivity in a more diverse ADHD population, including those with comorbid conditions. It could also investigate the effects of stimulant medications on tactile processing, as these medications might influence how individuals with ADHD experience sensory stimuli.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-024-06002-9">Altered somatosensory processing in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder</a>,” was authored by Morgan Frost-Karlsson, Andrea Johansson Capusan, Håkan Olausson, and Rebecca Boehme.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/depression-linked-to-increased-risk-of-dementia-over-15-years/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Depression linked to increased risk of dementia over 15 years</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 24th 2024, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>Depression significantly increases the risk of developing dementia and cognitive impairment, as reported in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.6121"><em>International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry</em></a>.</p>
<p>Dementia is a global concern, with cases projected to reach 135.46 million by 2050. While previous research suggests a link between depression and dementia, the nature of this relationship—whether depression is a precursor, risk factor, or consequence—remains unclear. This research led by Nicola Veronese and colleagues clarifies this link by investigating whether depression at baseline increases the risk of dementia over a 15-year period.</p>
<p>The study utilized data from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which is a large, longitudinal cohort representing populations from multiple European countries and Israel. This dataset spans 15 years and includes participants who were free of dementia at the beginning of the study. Participants were followed over 15 years, with assessments conducted across eight survey waves (2004–2020). In total, 22,789 participants were included in the final analysis, with the majority being female, and an average baseline age of 64.2 years.</p>
<p>Depression was assessed using the EURO-D scale, a 12-item self-report questionnaire designed to screen for depressive symptoms in older adults. Dementia was identified through self-reports from participants or their caregivers using a single yes/no question on a physician diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or senility.</p>
<p>Cognitive impairment was evaluated using a memory recall task and a verbal fluency task, both administered at multiple points throughout the study. Participants were considered cognitively impaired if they scored 1.5 standard deviations below the age-adjusted mean in both the memory and verbal fluency tasks. Several baseline factors were considered as confounders, including age, sex, marital status, educational level, physical activity, alcohol consumption, smoking, and the presence of chronic health conditions (multimorbidity).</p>
<p>Over the course of 15 years, 1,419 participants developed dementia. Individuals who reported depressive symptoms at baseline had a significantly higher risk of developing dementia, with the overall risk increased by 74%. Younger individuals (under 60) with depression were more likely to develop dementia compared to their older counterparts. Among participants under 60, the risk of dementia was more than twice as high for those with baseline depression compared to those without.</p>
<p>Further, individuals with depressive symptoms had a 15% increased risk of cognitive impairment. This association was again stronger in younger participants, indicating that early-life depression could have long-term effects on cognitive health.</p>
<p>Importantly, among the individual depressive symptoms measured by the EURO-D scale, loss of concentration emerged as the strongest predictor of future dementia. This suggests that particular symptoms of depression may be more relevant to the risk of cognitive decline than others. There were also regional differences, with Mediterranean countries showing a stronger association between depression and dementia risk than other parts of Europe.</p>
<p>A key limitation of the study is its reliance on self-reported data for both depression and dementia, which may introduce reporting biases.</p>
<p>Overall, this study highlights the importance of addressing depression, particularly in younger adults, as a potential strategy for reducing the risk of dementia and cognitive impairment in later life.</p>
<p>The research, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/gps.6121">Association between depression and incident dementia: Longitudinal findings from the share study</a>”, was authored by Nicola Veronese, Lee Smith, Ai Koyanagi, Pinar Soysal, Christoph Mueller, Chiara Maria Errera, Giusy Vassallo, Laura Vernuccio, Giuseppina Catanese, Marco Solmi, Ligia J. Dominguez, and Mario Barbagallo.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/blurry-boundaries-how-the-brain-confuses-self-and-others-in-borderline-personality-disorder/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Blurry boundaries: How the brain confuses self and others in borderline personality disorder</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 24th 2024, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent study published in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0925492724001057"><em>Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging</em></a> sheds light on the neural differences related to identity instability traits in borderline personality disorder. By analyzing brain patterns through a technique called Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), the researchers found that individuals who struggle with identity instability exhibit more similar brain activity when judging their own traits and when imagining how others perceive them. This suggests that people with borderline personality traits may have difficulty distinguishing between themselves and others at a neural level.</p>
<p>Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a mental health condition marked by unstable relationships, a fluctuating self-image, and impulsive behaviors. People with BPD often struggle with understanding themselves and others, and this can lead to misunderstandings, difficulties in relationships, and emotional instability.</p>
<p>Previous research has suggested that this condition might stem from an inability to accurately differentiate between one’s own thoughts and the perspectives of others. However, directly measuring this cognitive confusion has been challenging. The researchers wanted to explore whether these difficulties could be observed in the brain by examining the neural patterns of people with borderline personality traits when they were asked to judge both their own characteristics and those of others.</p>
<p>“We were interested in the neuroscientific mechanism of personality disorders,” said study author <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Seyul-Kwak" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Seyul Kwak</a>, an assistant professor of psychology at Pusan National University. “Despite numerous studies that have already highlighted interpersonal difficulties or emotional dysregulation typical of borderline personality disorder, we wondered what would be the core of such manifesting symptoms. We have applied psychoanalytic conceptions to neuroscience.”</p>
<p>The study involved 156 young adults, ranging from 19 to 36 years old, with an average age of 23. About 29% of the participants had a history of psychiatric treatment, and a smaller group was currently receiving treatment or taking medication. The researchers measured borderline personality traits using a well-established questionnaire, focusing on traits related to identity instability and impulsive behaviors.</p>
<p>The researchers used a brain imaging technique called fNIRS, which is non-invasive and measures brain activity by monitoring blood oxygen levels in the brain. Participants completed a task that required them to rate how well various personality traits applied to themselves and to others. These others included people they were close to, such as friends, and acquaintances with whom they interacted regularly but did not feel particularly close. In addition to these self-other comparisons, the participants also made judgments about word meanings in a non-social task, which served as a control.</p>
<p>The brain activity of participants was recorded while they performed these tasks, and the researchers analyzed how similar the brain’s responses were across different conditions—such as when participants judged themselves, when they thought about others, and when they tried to imagine how others perceived them.</p>
<p>The study’s findings were focused on the differences in how the brain processed information when participants thought about themselves versus others. In particular, the researchers found that the brain activity of individuals with higher borderline personality traits showed more similarity between self-judgment and third-person judgment (when they imagined how others perceived them). This neural similarity suggests that individuals with these traits may have difficulty mentally separating their own perspective from the perspectives of others, which could contribute to their sense of identity instability.</p>
<p>“We were particularly interested in the finding that neural differentiation in third-person inference—that is, imagining how a friend perceives you—was associated with borderline personality traits,” Kwak told PsyPost. “Rather than just forming a concept of themselves or their close friend, it may have been much more challenging for participants to distinguish between their own thoughts and how they believed their closest friend viewed them. It is important to note that your close friend’s model of you should be clearly delineated from how you think of yourself.”</p>
<p>Interestingly, the neural patterns of participants were different when they made judgments about people they didn’t feel close to, suggesting that the difficulty in separating self and others may be more pronounced in close, emotionally relevant relationships. These findings support the idea that people with borderline traits may conflate their own thoughts and emotions with those of others, especially when the other person is someone close to them.</p>
<p>“If one is struggling with emotional instability in their interpersonal relationships, and your relationships are sometimes too close and sometimes too aloof, you might be suffering from features of borderline personality traits,” Kwak said. “According to our findings, one might be having a blurry boundary between the concept of self and other, as observed with neural patterns. Either with psychological treatment or over the course of personal development, this boundary can become clearer and more stable.”</p>
<p>In contrast, impulsive behaviors, another key aspect of borderline personality disorder, were not predicted by the same neural patterns. This suggests that impulsive actions may be driven by different processes in the brain than those responsible for identity instability.</p>
<p>Although this study provides valuable insights, it has several limitations. First, the brain imaging technique used, fNIRS, provides less detailed information compared to other methods like functional MRI, so the results should be interpreted with caution. While fNIRS is effective at detecting overall patterns of brain activity, it may not capture all the intricacies of the neural processes involved.</p>
<p>Another limitation is that the researchers measured brain activity during specific task conditions, which may not fully capture how individuals with borderline traits behave in real-world social interactions. Future research could explore how these neural patterns relate to behavior in more naturalistic settings, such as everyday conversations and conflicts with loved ones.</p>
<p>“We inferred how one can differentiate the concept of self and other only at a neural level,” Kwak noted. “But this is highly indirect inference and further evidence should be supported with other behavioral or linguistic data.”</p>
<p>To build on these findings, future studies could examine whether the same patterns of neural confusion between self and others are observed in people with other types of personality disorders. It would also be beneficial to explore whether different therapeutic approaches, such as mindfulness-based therapies, can help people with borderline personality disorder develop a clearer sense of self and reduce the neural overlap between self and others.</p>
<p>“We hope to propose theoretically valid and clinically predictive neural markers of personality disorders,” Kwak said.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2024.111882">Borderline personality trait is associated with neural differentiation of self-other processing: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study</a>,” was authored by Do Yeon Yoo, Da Won Jeong, Min Kyoung Kim, and Seyul Kwak.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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