Affect-based Impulsivity in Borderline Personality Disorder

Affect-based Impulsivity in Borderline Personality Disorder: Developing a Neurocomputational Phenotype

The purpose of this research study is to investigate how personality traits and neuroendocrine systems relate to decision-making patterns in individuals 18-45 years old. The main question it aims to answer is how neuroendocrine activity impacts decision-making.

Participants will complete online behavioral tasks, a stress induction procedure, self-report surveys, and a cognitive assessment. During the session, psychophysiological measures will be collected, including electrocardiogram (ECG) and cardiac impedance (ICG) to monitor heart rate and blood flow, as well as electrodermal activity (EDA), blood drop samples, and saliva collection to assess nervous system activity.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Healthy Controls Group - Age and Sex-matched; Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Stress Induction

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 106
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Michael N Hallquist, PhD; Phone Number: 412-613-9306; Email: michael.hallquist@unc.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • North Carolina
    • Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, 27514
      • Recruiting
      • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
      • Contact: Michael N Hallquist, PhD; Phone Number: 412-613-9306; Email: michael.hallquist@unc.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) group:

• Score of 38 or higher on Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline Scale (PAI-BOR)
• Participants in the BPD group will be primarily recruited from the two

DEPENd lab studies that maintain large samples of BPD participants. To ensure maximal similarity between BPD participants recruited from other DEPENd lab studies and BPD participants recruited through other recruitment sources, the investigators will use the same criteria for the BPD group in the current study as the criteria used in the other DEPENd lab studies. BPD participants in the two DEPENd lab studies from which the investigators will be recruiting must meet the following criteria:

1. 3+ BPD symptoms, one of which must be affective instability, per clinical interview
2. Participants must score at least 80 on the Reynolds Intellectual Screening Test (RIST).

Health Control (HC) Group:

• Score of 12 or lower on PAI-BOR
• Score below 50th percentile on World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS)
• Absence of any current or lifetime psychiatric disorder, including personality disorders as determined by diagnostic interviews (SIDP and SCID), if the participant had participated in the lab's other studies (IRB Nos. 20-1735 and 21-0602).

Combined Inclusion Criteria:

• Ages 18-45
• Provision of signed and dated informed consent form
• Stated willingness to comply with all study procedures and lifestyle considerations and availability for the duration of the study
• Willingness to participate in all components of the study
• Participants must be able to speak, understand and read English.
• Participants must have at least 20/40 visual acuity (correct or uncorrected).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Use of as needed antihypertensive agents within 12 hours prior to lab visit
• Inability to refrain from using as needed psychotropic medications for 12 hours prior to lab visit
• History of psychotic disorder, Bipolar I disorder, autism spectrum disorder, reactive attachment disorder, pervasive developmental disorder, motor disorder, head injury, mental retardation, neurological disorder, or current substance dependence
• Family history of Bipolar I disorder in a first degree relative.
• Participants are also excluded for any of the following: cardiac pacemaker, aneurysm clip, cochlear implants, pregnancy, shrapnel, history of metal fragments in eyes, neurostimulators, weight of 250 lbs. or more, or claustrophobia.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Stress; Participants will undergo a controlled stress induction approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes into Session 1.	Behavioral: Stress Induction; Participants will complete the Trier Social Stress Test to induce stress, which includes a public speaking simulation and mental arithmetic.; Other Names: Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Goal-directed decision-making in the Social Decision Tree Task (SDTT)	Measured by choice behavior in SDTT, which is based on the decision tree framework. After each action, participants receive feedback about the effect of that action and the extent to which it added to or took away from their points. If participants make a given choice, the subsequent actions that they can choose are different than if they were to initially make a different choice. An action in SDTT is goal-directed if the possible net gain an individual can earn before the end of the current epoch (a "day" in the SDTT) is equal to or higher than the amount they could gain by choosing the alternative action. The investigators will subset trials so that 1 is coded as choosing the immediately valuable action at the expense of the optimal and 0 is coded as choosing the optimal at the expense of the immediately valuable action. This outcome variable is binary.	Collected for 40 minutes ~2 hours into one-time study visit

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Bias toward social actions in the Social Decision Tree Task (SDTT)	Measured by choice behavior in SDTT, which is based on the decision tree framework. An action in SDTT is defined as social if it is paired with a visual cue with a face on it and non-social if not. This outcome variable is binary.	Collected for 40 minutes ~2 hours into one-time study visit

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in salivary cortisol	The investigators will collect a saliva sample to measure baseline salivary cortisol at the beginning of the session. They will collect a second saliva sample 10 minutes after the stress induction concludes. They will measure cortisol levels in both samples through an assay. The investigators will calculate the change in salivary cortisol by subtracting the measured cortisol in the first saliva sample (collected at baseline) from the measured cortisol in the second saliva sample (collected 10 minutes after the stress induction). Salivary cortisol is measured as nmol/L. Salivary cortisol expected to generally be below 200 nmol/L.	Collected shortly after the participant consents into the study (~20 minutes into the one-time study visit) and 20 minutes after stress induction concludes (~2 hours into one-time study visit)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Collaborators: North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Michael Hallquist, PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Huys QJ, Eshel N, O'Nions E, Sheridan L, Dayan P, Roiser JP. Bonsai trees in your head: how the pavlovian system sculpts goal-directed choices by pruning decision trees. PLoS Comput Biol. 2012;8(3):e1002410. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002410. Epub 2012 Mar 8.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 21, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): August 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 11, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 11, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): March 18, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): September 24, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 23, 2025
• Last Verified: September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Personality Disorders; Borderline Personality Disorder; Behavioral Disciplines and Activities; Psychological Tests
• Other Study ID Numbers: 24-3120; CTSC0406 (Other Grant/Funding Number: The North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (TraCS) Institute)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Deidentified individual data that supports the results will be shared beginning 9 to 36 months following publication provided the investigator who proposes to use the data has approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB), Independent Ethics Committee (IEC), or Research Ethics Board (REB), as applicable, and executes a data use/sharing agreement with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Beginning 9 and continuing for 36 months following publication
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Investigator who proposes to use the data has approved IRB, IEC, or REB and an executed data use/sharing agreement with UNC.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No