Common and distinct brain functional alterations in pharmacotherapy treatment-naïve female borderline personality disorder patients with and without auditory verbal hallucinations: a pilot study

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are experienced by approximately 25% of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Despite the high incidence, the pathological features of AVH in BPD remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate whole-brain functional connectivity (FC), as measured by functional connectivity density (FCD), and its relationship with AVH in BPD. 65 pharmacotherapy treatment-naïve female BPD patients (30 with AVH and 35 without AVH), and 35 female healthy controls were investigated. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected to assess whole-brain FC and functional connectivity density mapping (FCDM) was applied to the fMRI data to compute FCD features. Compared to the healthy controls, both BPD groups (BPD–AVH and BPD without AVH) exhibited significantly higher gFCD values in the bilateral prefrontal lobe, bilateral orbital lobule, and bilateral insula, and significantly lower gFCD values in the SMA, right anterior temporal lobule, and the ACC. These altered regions were significantly associated with AVH in the BPD subjects. Moreover, higher gFCD values were observed in the left posterior temporal lobule and posterior frontal lobule. Aberrant alterations also emerged in the left posterior temporal lobule and posterior frontal lobule, mainly in Broca and Wernicke regions. Nevertheless, there was no significant correlation between gFCD values and the severity of AVH as measured by the AVH scores. In summary, we have identified aberrations in the FC and brain metabolism of the aforementioned neural circuits/networks, which may provide new insights into BPD–AVH and facilitate the development of therapeutic approaches for treating AVH in BPD patients.