Strawson et al 2021 ViBE.pdf (5.82 MB)
Voice hearing in borderline personality disorder across perceptual, subjective, and neural dimensions
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-10, 04:02 authored by William StrawsonWilliam Strawson, Hao-Ting Wang, Lisa QuadtLisa Quadt, Maxine ShermanMaxine Sherman, Dennis Larsson, Geoff Davies, Brontë LA Mckeown, Marta Silva, Sarah Fielding-Smith, Anna-Marie Jones, Mark HaywardMark Hayward, Jonathan Smallwood, Hugo CritchleyHugo Critchley, Sarah GarfinkelBACKGROUND: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) commonly occur in the context of borderline personality disorder (BPD) yet remain poorly understood. AVH are often perceived by patients with BPD as originating from inside the head and hence viewed clinically as "pseudohallucinations," but they nevertheless have a detrimental impact on well-being. METHODS: The current study characterized perceptual, subjective, and neural expressions of AVH by using an auditory detection task, experience sampling and questionnaires, and functional neuroimaging, respectively. RESULTS: Perceptually, reported AVH correlated with a bias for reporting the presence of a voice in white noise. Subjectively, questionnaire measures indicated that AVH were significantly distressing and persecutory. In addition, AVH intensity, but not perceived origin (i.e., inside vs outside the head), was associated with greater concurrent anxiety. Neurally, fMRI of BPD participants demonstrated that, relative to imagining or listening to voices, periods of reported AVH induced greater blood oxygenation level-dependent activity in anterior cingulate and bilateral temporal cortices (regional substrates for language processing). AVH symptom severity was associated with weaker functional connectivity between anterior cingulate and bilateral insular cortices. CONCLUSION: In summary, our results indicate that AVH in participants with BPD are (1) underpinned by aberrant perceptual-cognitive mechanisms for signal detection, (2) experienced subjectively as persecutory and distressing, and (3) associated with distinct patterns of neural activity that inform proximal mechanistic understanding. Our findings are like analogous observations in patients with schizophrenia and validate the clinical significance of the AVH experience in BPD, often dismissed as "pseudohallucinations." These highlight a need to reconsider this experience as a treatment priority.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Published version
Journal
The International Journal of NeuropsychopharmacologyISSN
1461-1457Publisher
Cambridge University PressExternal DOI
Volume
25Page range
375-386Event location
EnglandDepartment affiliated with
- BSMS Neuroscience Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2022-06-23First Open Access (FOA) Date
2022-06-23First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2022-06-21Usage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedKeywords
Licence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC