Hippocampal Activation and Memory Encoding in Borderline Personality Disorder

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) report everyday problems with forgetfulness and display deficits on standardized measures of memory functioning. The medial temporal lobe, involved in memory encoding and consolidation, is smaller in individuals with BPD and shows an altered pattern of resting metabolism. The neural correlates of disrupted memory formation in BPD have not been studied outside of the context of emotionally-valenced material. To examine the neural underpinnings of memory encoding in BPD, the present study assessed eight females with BPD and an equal number of age- and sex-matched non-psychiatric controls. Participants viewed visual scenes during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning and subsequently completed a recognition memory test outside the scanner. Compared to controls, individuals with BPD exhibited less activation in the right hippocampus for subsequently remembered versus forgotten scenes. These results suggest that hippocampal dysfunction during the formation of memories may underlie the memory disturbances associated with BPD.M.A