Pain and pleasure: affective somatosensory processing and emotion regulation in borderline personality disorder

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Previous evidence points to a significant role of pain in the context of disturbed emotion regulation in borderline personality disorder (BPD). However, since there is evidence for a common neurobiology underlying both pain and pleasure, there is reason to assume that BPD-associated alterations in the processing of sensory-affective input are not restricted to negatively evaluated somatosensory stimulation, but also affect the processing of somatosensory input which usually is positively evaluated. Our own preliminary results suggest that individuals with BPD not only report reduced sensitivity to pain, but also to pleasant touch (PT), that is, a somatosensory percept with positive valence mediated by C-tactile fibres, which in non-clinical individuals is important for non-verbal social communication and associated with stress relief. However, the actual nature of disturbed PT processing, its neural underpinnings, and its interaction with disturbed social processes in BPD are still unknown. Focusing on BPD, this project therefore has three aims: (1) the characterization of disturbed affective somatosensory processing and its relationship to BPD psychopathology and aetiological factors, (2) the elucidation of neural network activity associated with pleasant and unpleasant somatosensory stimulation, and (3) the evaluation of the effects of affective touch on social stress. Dimensionally assessed personality pathology, non-suicidal self-injurious behaviour, as well as a history of traumatization will be related to perceptual and behavioural characteristics. We expect that the findings will reveal unknown mechanisms underlying affective somatosensory processing and its relationship to emotion regulation in BPD.