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Abstract #3670

Atypical Auditory-Visual Integration Mechanism in Borderline Personality Disorder: A FMRI Analysis Using Emotional Congruence and Incongruence in Music and Facial Images

Jeong-Won Jeong1, Jeffrey G. Kuentzel2, Vibhav A. Diwadkar3, Carla D. Chugani4, Varun Shandal5, Harry T. Chugani6, Diane C. Chugani7

1Pediatrics and Neurology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States; 2Psychology, Wayne State University; 3Behavioral Neuroscience, Wayne State University; 4Counseling and Psychological Services, Florida Gulf Coast University; 5PET center, Wayne State University; 6Pediatrics, Neurology, and Radiology, Wayne State University; 7Pediatrics and Radiology, Wayne State University


Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a prevalent mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in emotion, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior. The hallmark features of BPD are affective instability and severe mood swings but there have been few functional imaging studies to investigate neuronal substrates underlying these features in BPD patients. Our previous fMRI study reported that there were significant Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal increases in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and fusiform gyrus (FG) of healthy young adults, which respond to emotionally congruent and incongruent music-face images, respectively. We presume that these BOLD gains in STG and FG underlie emotion perception that responds to emotional congruence in multi-modal sensory inputs. This study extends our fMRI technique to examine how STG and FG of BPD patients respond to emotionally paired music-face images, which might provide a mechanism related to elevated response to emotional stimuli.