Research report Fronto-limbic dysfunction in borderline personality disorder: A 18F-FDG positron emission tomography study José Salavert a,b, ⁎, Miquel Gasol a , Eduard Vieta c, ⁎, Ana Cervantes a , Carlos Trampal d , Juan Domingo Gispert d,e a Borderline Personality Disorder Institute, Psychiatry Department, Capio Hospital General de Catalunya, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain b Psychiatry Department, Hospital San Rafael, H Univ Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, Spain c Bipolar Disorders Program, Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, IDIBAPS, CIBERSAM, Barcelona, Spain d Institute of Advanced Technology, Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, Spain e Networking Biomedical Research Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), Spain article info abstract Article history: Received 24 October 2010 Received in revised form 8 January 2011 Accepted 8 January 2011 Available online xxxx Introduction: Several functional neuroimaging studies have demonstrated abnormalities in fronto-limbic pathways when comparing borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients with controls. The present study aimed to evaluate regional cerebral metabolism in euthymic BPD patients with similar measured impulsivity levels by means of 18F-FDG PET during resting state and to compare them against a control group. Methods: The present study evaluates regional cerebral metabolism in 8 euthymic BPD patients with 18F-FDG PET during resting state as compared to 8 controls with similar socio-geographic characteristics. Results: BPD patients presented a marked hypo-metabolism in frontal lobe and showed hyper- metabolism in motor cortex (paracentral lobules and post-central cortex), medial and anterior cingulus, occipital lobe, temporal pole, left superior parietal gyrus and right superior frontal gyrus. No significant differences appeared in basal ganglia or thalamus. Conclusions: Results reveal a dysfunction in patients' frontolimbic network during rest and provide further evidence for the importance of these regions in relation to BPD symptomatology. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Borderline personality disorder Neuroimaging Frontolimbic network Emotional dysregulation Impulsivity 1. Introduction Studies up to the date suggest that Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) has a biological and psychosocial basis. According to neurobiological factors underlying BPD, differ- ent neuroimaging studies have shown specific structural and functional abnormalities when comparing BPD patients with controls. Structural imaging studies show predominantly smaller amygdala (more frequently in impulsive–aggressive BPD patients) and hippocampal volumes in adult patients with BPD (Brambilla et al., 2004; Schmahl et al., 2003; Zetzsche et al., 2007). Many studies in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) also report reduced hippocampal volume in those patients, but the reduction of amygdalar volume seems to differentiate BPD patients from those affected by PTSD (Schmahl and Bremner, 2006). A reduced volume of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) has been reported as well (Brambilla et al., 2004; Hazlett et al., 2005; Minzenberg et al., 2007; Whittle et al., 2009). Functional imaging studies' most consistent finding when studying brain metabolism at baseline has been of an altered Journal of Affective Disorders xxx (2011) xxx–xxx ⁎ Corresponding authors. Vieta is to be contacted at Bipolar Disorders Program, Clinical Institute of Neuroscience, University Clinic Hospital of Barcelona, CIBERSAM, Villarroel, 170, 08036-Barcelona, Spain. Tel.: + 34 93 2275401; fax: + 34 932275795. Salavert, Psychiatry Department, Hospital San Rafael, Hosp Univ Vall d'Hebron, Psg. Vall d'Hebron, 107-117, 08035 Barcelona, Spain. Tel.: +34 93 2112508; fax: +34 93 4188448. E-mail addresses: 36776jsj@comb.cat (J. Salavert), evieta@clinic.ub.es (E. Vieta). JAD-04870; No of Pages 8 0165-0327/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2011.01.001 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Affective Disorders journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jad Please cite this article as: Salavert, J., et al., Fronto-limbic dysfunction in borderline personality disorder: A 18F-FDG positron emission tomography study, J. Affect. Disord. (2011), doi:10.1016/j.jad.2011.01.001