Projekte: Experimentelle Psychologie

1 Results of the first funding period The aim of this project was to add to the understanding of the mechanism underlying the pervasive experience of social exclusion in BPD which is assumed to contribute to severe interpersonal problems. In sum, our findings of the first funding period suggest that interpersonal problems in BPD may be primarily linked to an imbalance in the experiences of negative and positive events in every-day life. This is less caused by alterations in the processing of social rejection, but in the processing of positive social cues. In particular, we found that BPD patients experience happy faces as less intense and are less confident during their evaluation. They evaluate particularly positive information referenced to themselves as less positive and this has been related to an internal, negative and global attributional style. They feel less included during positive and neutral social encounters, expect less positive feedback of social co-players, fail to adjust their expectancies particularly in case of positive feedback and react with a drop of cooperative behavior in case of a provocation when previously included by social partners. Brain imaging data suggest that these behavioral data may be linked to a lack in the modulation of the engagement of brain structures depending on the nature of a social encounter. Rejection sensitivity, i.e. a cognitive-affective disposition, which is increased in both acute as well as remitted BPD patients, influenced the intensity of many of these alterations. These distinct maladaptive mechanisms may result in a pervasive disruption of the sense of belonging, feeling different and separated from others, as well as feelings of loneliness and a reduced level of social functioning. 2 New questions and work schedule The findings in funding period 1 emphasize the importance of alterations in the processing of positive social information in BPD. The planned project of funding period serves 2 aims: 1) Transferring these experimental findings into a modular, adaptive computer-assisted therapeutic intervention. This should provide an intensive, cost-efficient training, targeting the improvement of processing positive social information. This program will be evaluated within a randomized controlled trial. 2) Investigating further patho-mechanism in the development of feeling of belonging in BPD. During funding period 1 we had primarily studied features from the receiver perspective (i.e. the perception and evaluation of social rejection and inclusion). In period 2 we will focus on bidirectional processes incl. the sender perspective (i.e. behavioral expression of social signals; the adjustment of social behavior to social context and its consequences for the sense of belonging). We hypothesize, that basal affiliative processes such as behavioral matching, i.e. mimicry and synchronized action, and their interplay with the sensitivity to social reward, the storage of positive social information in memory, and the guidance of action based on positive social experiences are impaired in BPD patients. Effects will be measured by means of overt behavior, psychophysiological parameters (HR, EMG) and its neural correlates (fMRI). Work schedule: For this project, we will collect data from 60 female patients with BPD (age 18-45). For participating in study 2, we will recruit additionally a sample of 40 age, sex and educationally matched female healthy control subjects (age 18-45) and a clinical control group of 40 female patients with social phobia.