Affect-based Impulsivity in Borderline Personality Disorder

NCT06880640 | Recruiting

• 2 other identifiers: 24-3120CTSC0406
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 106
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

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.

Conditions

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD); Healthy Controls Group - Age and Sex-matched

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• 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 Outcomes (1)

• Bias toward social actions in the Social Decision Tree Task (SDTT)

  Collected for 40 minutes ~2 hours into one-time study visit

Other Outcomes (1)

• Change in salivary cortisol

  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)

Study Arms (1)

Stress

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will undergo a controlled stress induction approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes into Session 1.

Behavioral: Stress Induction

Interventions

Stress Induction BEHAVIORAL

Participants will complete the Trier Social Stress Test to induce stress, which includes a public speaking simulation and mental arithmetic.

Also known as: Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)

Stress

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 45 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• 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:
• + BPD symptoms, one of which must be affective instability, per clinical interview
• 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).
• 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.

You may not qualify if:

• 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.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: lead
• North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27514, United States

RECRUITING

Related Publications (1)

• 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.

  PMID: 22412360 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Borderline Personality Disorder

Interventions

Psychological Tests

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Personality Disorders; Mental Disorders

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavioral Disciplines and Activities

Study Officials

• Michael Hallquist, PhD

  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Michael N Hallquist, PhD

CONTACT

412-613-9306; michael.hallquist@unc.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 11, 2025
• First Posted: March 18, 2025
• Study Start: September 21, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): August 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 1, 2026
• Last Updated: September 24, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-09

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF
• Time Frame: Beginning 9 and continuing for 36 months following publication
• Access Criteria: Investigator who proposes to use the data has approved IRB, IEC, or REB and an executed data use/sharing agreement with UNC.

Locations

US (1)