Cortical haemodynamic response measured by functional near infrared spectroscopy during a verbal fluency task in patients with major depression and borderline personality disorder

• Published in: EBioMedicine Vol. 51; p. 102586
• Main Authors: Husain, Syeda F., Tang, Tong-Boon, Yu, Rongjun, Tam, Wilson W., Tran, Bach, Quek, Travis T., Hwang, Shi-Hui, Chang, Cheryl W., Ho, Cyrus S., Ho, Roger C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.01.2020; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Advanced Basic Science; Aged; Borderline personality disorder; Borderline Personality Disorder - complications; Borderline Personality Disorder - physiopathology; Depressive Disorder, Major - complications; Depressive Disorder, Major - physiopathology; Female; Haemodynamic response; Hemodynamics - physiology; Humans; Internal Medicine; Major depressive disorder; Male; Middle Aged; Near-infrared spectroscopy; Neuropsychological Tests; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - physiopathology; Research paper; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; Task Performance and Analysis; Verbal fluency task; Young Adult; Verbal fluency task; Haemodynamic response; Prefrontal cortex; Borderline personality disorder; Major depressive disorder; Near-infrared spectroscopy
• ISSN: 2352-3964; 2352-3964
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.11.047

Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) provides a direct and quantitative assessment of cortical haemodynamic function during a cognitive task. This functional neuroimaging modality may be used to elucidate the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders, and identify neurophysiological differences between co-occurring psychiatric disorders. However, fNIRS research on borderline personality disorder (BPD) has been limited. Hence, this study aimed to compare cerebral haemodynamic function in healthy controls (HC), patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and patients with BPD. fNIRS signals during a verbal fluency task designed for clinical assessment was recorded for all participants. Demographics, clinical history and symptom severity were also noted. Compared to HCs (n = 31), both patient groups (MDD, n = 31; BPD, n = 31) displayed diminished haemodynamic response in the frontal, temporal and parietal cortices. Moreover, haemodynamic response in the right frontal cortex is markedly lower in patients with MDD compared to patients with BPD. Normal cortical function in patients with BPD is disrupted, but not as extensively as in patients with MDD. These results provide further neurophysiological evidence for the distinction of patients with MDD from patients with BPD.