EEG Spatial Organization Features in Adolescent Patients with Different Subtypes of Borderline Personality Disorder

Background: despite the presence of multidisciplinary researchs the neurobiological pathways of borderline personality disorders (BPD) in youth are studied insufficiently. Neuroimaging methods found some structural and functional changes in fronto-limbic system associated with social communication and emotions regulation. The increased impulsivity characteristic of BPD suggests the decreasing of inhibiting control of emotions and behavior due to state of prefrontal cortex. The aim of the study: to assess the features of the spatial organization of brain activity in patients with different clinical subtypes of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Patients and Methods: the study included 52 patients aged 16–25 years (mean age 20.4 ± 3.2 years) with BPD (F60.31, according to ICD-10). Methods: clinical-psychopathological, psychometric, neurophysiological, statistical. Based on clinical and psychopathological characteristics, three groups of patients with different subtypes of BPD were identified. In all patients, a pre-treatment multichannel resting EEG was recorded with measurements of EEG coherence in narrow frequency subbands. Between-group differences in clinical and neurophysiological parameters were identified using nonparametric statistics criteria. Results: differences between the groups of patients were revealed in terms of the spatial organization of the EEG — in the number of “highly coherent” functional connections (with coherence coefficients above 0.9). High values of the number of such connections in the alpha2 sub-band of the EEG in the fronto-central-temporal regions reflect a relatively better functional state of the prefrontal cortex. Conclusion: the noted features of the spatial functional organization of brain activity in groups of patients with different subtypes of BPD may underlie differences in their clinical conditions, control of emotions and behavior.

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