Assessment of Affect Instability in Adolescent Girls with BPD Features

描述(由申请人提供)：需要一种发展精神病理学方法来治疗交界性人格障碍(BPD)，以阐明我们对这种复杂和衰弱的障碍的理解。BPD功能障碍的多方面性质使得这种障碍特别难以进行经验研究和临床治疗。有必要确定可能有助于疾病病因的特征，以最终帮助预防和干预努力。人工智能是BPD的一个核心特征，它推动了其他特征的发展，包括认知障碍、冲动行为、身份混淆和人际功能障碍1-3。通过在正常发展的背景下考察情感调控的过程，我们可以深入了解出错并导致人工智能的过程。我已经提出了关于青春期女孩BPD途径上的情感调节过程的假设。青春期社会期望、生物学和荷尔蒙的快速变化增加了对情绪调节技能的要求。因此，青春期是考察BPD特征表现中的情绪调节的最佳时期。具体地说，AI水平高的女孩会发展出其他BPD特征(冲动、人际功能障碍和身份认同障碍)。本提案中描述的培训和研究计划旨在使我能够测试这些说法的有效性。需要在自我报告问卷之外采用与背景相关的范式和改进的方法，以审查人工智能及其发展后果。在这项拟议的研究中，我将研究青春期女孩在高水平和低水平人工智能下的瞳孔放大模式，以及与母亲的面对面互动。这些方法允许对人工智能进行心理生理学和观察性评估。这项建议将促进我们对BPD的发育关联的理解，BPD是一种代价高昂且意义重大的精神健康问题4，5。这项工作将解决NIMH的战略目标，即促进“在大脑和行为科学中的发现，以推动对精神疾病原因的研究。”

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A developmental psychopathology approach to Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is needed to elucidate our understanding of this complex and debilitating disorder. The multifaceted nature of dysfunction in BPD makes the disorder especially difficult to empirically research and clinically treat. There is a need to identify features that might contribute to the etiology of the disorder to ultimately aid prevention and intervention efforts. AI is a core BPD feature that drives the development of other features including cognitive disturbances, impulsive behaviors, identity confusion, and interpersonal dysfunction 1-3. By examining the processes of affect regulation in the context of normal development, we can gain insights into processes that go awry and lead to AI. I have developed hypotheses about affect regulation processes on the pathway to BPD in adolescent girls. The rapid changes in social expectations, biology, and hormones during adolescence increase the demands on affect regulation skills. Thus, adolescence is an optimal time to examine affect regulation in the manifestation of BPD features. Specifically, girls with high levels of AI will develop other BPD features (impulsivity, interpersonal dysfunction, and identity disturbances). The training and research plans described in this proposal are designed to enable me to test the validity of these claims. Contextually relevant paradigms and improved methodologies going beyond self-report questionnaires are needed to examine AI and its developmental consequences. In the proposed study, I will examine both the pupil dilation patterns of adolescent girls at high and low levels of AI and face-to-face interactions with their mothers. These methodologies allow for both the psychophysiological and observational assessment of AI. This proposal will advance our understanding of the developmental associations of BPD, a costly and significant mental health problem4,5. This work will address the NIMH strategic objective of promoting "Discovery in the Brain and Behavioral Sciences to Fuel Research on the Causes of Mental Disorders."