Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T23:06:45.730Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The relationship between hippocampal asymmetry and temperament in adolescent borderline and antisocial personality pathology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2013

Martina Jovev
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne, Melbourne Northwestern Mental Health, Melbourne
Sarah Whittle
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne, Melbourne
Murat Yücel
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne, Melbourne
Julian Guy Simmons
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne, Melbourne
Nicholas B. Allen
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne, Melbourne
Andrew M. Chanen*
Affiliation:
University of Melbourne, Melbourne Northwestern Mental Health, Melbourne
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Andrew Chanen, Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Locked Bag 10, Parkville, VC 3052, Australia; E-mail: achanen@unimelb.edu.au.

Abstract

Investigating etiological processes early in the life span represents an important step toward a better understanding of the development of personality pathology. The current study evaluated the interaction between an individual difference risk factor (i.e., temperament) and a biological risk factor for aggressive behavior (i.e., atypical [larger] rightward hippocampal asymmetry) in predicting the emergence of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and antisocial personality disorder symptoms during early adolescence. The sample consisted of 153 healthy adolescents (M = 12.6 years, SD = 0.4, range = 11.4–13.7) who were selected from a larger sample to maximize variation in temperament. Interactions between four temperament factors (effortful control, negative affectivity, surgency, and affiliativeness), based on the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire—Revised, and volumetric measures of hippocampal asymmetry were examined as cross-sectional predictors of BPD and antisocial personality disorder symptoms. Boys were more likely to have elevated BPD symptoms if they were high on affiliation and had larger rightward hippocampal asymmetry. In boys, low affiliation was a significant predictor of BPD symptoms in the presence of low rightward hippocampal asymmetry. For girls, low effortful control was associated with elevated BPD symptoms in the presence of atypical rightward hippocampal asymmetry. This study builds on previous work reporting significant associations between atypical hippocampal asymmetry and poor behavioral regulation.

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Manual for the Youth Self-report and 1991 profiles. Burlington: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text rev.). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
Ayduk, O., Zayas, V., Downey, G., Cole, A., Shoda, Y., & Mischel, W. (2008). Rejection sensitivity and executive control: Joint predictors of borderline personality features. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 151168.Google Scholar
Basoglu, C., Oner, O., Ates, A., Algul, A., Bez, Y., Ebrinc, S., et al. (2011). Temperament traits and psychopathy in a group of patients with antisocial personality disorder. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 52, 607612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beauchaine, T. P., Klein, D. N., Crowell, S. E., Derbidge, C., & Gatzke-Kopp, L. (2009). Multifinality in the development of personality disorders: A Biology × Sex × Environment interaction model of antisocial and borderline traits. Developmental Psychology, 21, 735770.Google Scholar
Bernstein, D. P., Cohen, P., Skodol, A. E., Bezirganian, S., & Brook, J. (1996). Childhood antecedents of adolescent personality disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 907913.Google ScholarPubMed
Bernstein, D. P., Cohen, P., Velez, C. N., Schwab-Stone, M., Siever, L. J., & Shinsato, L. (1993). Prevalence and stability of the DSM-III-R personality disorders in a community-based survey of adolescents. American Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 12371243.Google Scholar
Brunner, R., Henze, R., Parzer, P., Kramer, J., Feigl, N., Lutz, K., et al. (2010). Reduced prefrontal and orbitofrontal gray matter in female adolescents with borderline personality disorder: Is it disorder specific? NeuroImage, 49, 114120.Google Scholar
Caspi, A. (2000). The child is father of the man: Personality continuities from childhood to adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 158172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., Newman, D. L., & Silva, P. A. (1996). Behavioral observations at age 3 years predict adult psychiatric disorders: Longitudinal evidence from a birth cohort. Archives of General Psychiatry, 53, 10331039.Google Scholar
Chanen, A. M., Jovev, M., & Jackson, H. (2007). Adaptive functioning and psychiatric symptoms in adolescents with borderline personality disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 68, 297306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chanen, A. M., Jovev, M., McCutcheon, L. K., Jackson, H. J., & McGorry, P. D. (2008). Borderline personality disorder in young people and the prospects for prevention and early intervention. Current Psychiatry Reviews, 4, 4857.Google Scholar
Chanen, A. M., Velakoulis, D., Carison, K., Gaunson, K., Wood, S. J., Yücel, M., et al. (2008). Orbitofrontal, amygdala and hippocampal volumes in teenagers with first-presentation borderline personality disorder. Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging, 163, 116125.Google Scholar
Chesterman, L. P., Taylor, P. J., Cox, T., Hill, M., & Lumsden, J. (1994). Multiple measures of cerebral state in dangerous mentally disordered inpatients. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 4, 228239.Google Scholar
Clark, L. (2005). Temperament as a unifying basis for personality and psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 505521.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, P., & Crawford, T. N. (2005). Developmental issues. In Bender, D. S., Oldham, J. M., & Skodol, A. E. (Eds.), The American Psychiatric Publishing textbook of personality disorders (pp. 171185). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.Google Scholar
Cohen, P., Crawford, T. N., Johnson, J. G., & Kasen, S. (2005). The children in the community study of developmental course of personality disorder. Journal of Personality Disorders, 19, 466486.Google Scholar
Coyne, J. C., & Whiffen, V. E. (1995). Issues in personality as diatheses for depression: The case of sociotropy-dependency and autonomy-self-criticism. Psychological Bulletin, 118, 358378.Google Scholar
Crawford, T., Cohen, P., & Brook, J. (2001). Dramatic–erratic personality disorder symptoms: II. Developmental pathways from early adolescence to adulthood. Journal of Personality Disorders, 15, 336350.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crawford, T. N., Cohen, P., Johnson, J. G., Kasen, S., First, M. B., Gordon, K., et al. (2005). Self-reported personality disorder in the children in the community sample: Convergent and prospective validity in late adolescence and adulthood. Journal of Personality Disorders, 19, 3052.Google Scholar
Crowell, S. E., Beauchaine, T. P., & Lenzenweger, M. F. (2008). The development of borderline personality disorder and self-injurious behavior. In Beauchaine, T. & Hinshaw, S. (Eds.), Child and adolescent psychopathology (pp. 510539). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Crowell, S. E., Beauchaine, T. P., & Linehan, M. M. (2009). A biosocial developmental model of borderline personality: Elaborating and extending Linehan's theory. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 495510.Google Scholar
De Clercq, B., De Fruyt, F., & Widiger, T. A. (2009). Integrating a developmental perspective in dimensional models of personality disorders. Clinical Psychology Review, 29, 154162.Google Scholar
Eaton, N. R., Krueger, R. F., Keyes, K. M., Skodol, A. E., Markon, K. E., Grant, B. F., et al. (2011). Borderline personality disorder co-morbidity: Relationship to the internalizing–externalizing structure of common mental disorders. Psychological Medicine, 41, 10411050.Google Scholar
Ellis, L. K., & Rothbart, M. K. (2001). Revision of the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.Google Scholar
Else-Quest, N. M., Hyde, J. S., Goldsmith, H. H., & Van Hulle, C. A. (2006). Gender differences in temperament: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 3372.Google Scholar
Fowles, D. C., & Dindo, L. (2009). Temperament and Psychopathy: A dual-pathway model. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28, 179183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giedd, J. N., Castellanos, F. X., Rajapakse, J. C., Vaituzis, A. C., & Rapoport, J. L. (1997). Sexual dimorphism of the developing human brain. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 21, 11851201.Google Scholar
Gunderson, J. G. (1996). The borderline patient's intolerance of aloneness: Insecure attachments and therapist availability. American Journal of Psychiatry, 153, 752758.Google Scholar
Harpur, T. J., Hart, S. D., & Hare, R. D. (1993). The personality of the psychopath. In Costa, P. T. & Widiger, T. A. (Eds.), Personality disorders and the Five-Factor model of personality (pp. 149173). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Hier, D. (1979). Sex differences in hemispheric specialization: Hypothesis for the excess of dyslexia in boys. Annals of Dyslexia, 29, 74.Google Scholar
Holmes, T. H., & Masuda, M. (1974). Life changes and illness susceptibility. In Dohrenwend, B. S. & Dohrenwend, B. P. (Eds.), Stressful life events: Their nature and effects (pp. 4572). New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Isaacs, E. B., Lucas, A., Chong, W. K., Wood, S. J., Johnson, C. L., Marshall, C., et al. (2000). Hippocampal volume and everyday memory in children of very low birth weight. Pediatric Research, 47, 713720.Google Scholar
Jack, C. R., Twomey, C. K., Zinsmeister, A. R., Sharborough, F. W., Petersen, R., & Cascino, G. D. (1989). Anterior temporal lobes and hippocampal formations: Normative volumetric measurements from MR images in young adults. Radiology, 172, 549554.Google Scholar
Jenkinson, M., & Smith, S. M. (2001). A global optimisation method for robust affine registration of brain images. Medical Image Analysis, 5, 143156.Google Scholar
Johnson, J., Cohen, D., Brown, J., Smailes, E., & Berstein, D. (1999). Childhood maltreatment increases risk for personality disorders during early adulthood. Archives of General Psychiatry, 56, 600606.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. G., Cohen, P., Kasen, S., Skodol, A. E., Hamagami, F., & Brook, J. S. (2000). Age-related change in personality disorder trait levels between early adolescence and adulthood: A community-based longitudinal investigation. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 102, 265275.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. G., Cohen, P., Skodol, A. E., Oldham, J. M., Kasen, S., & Brook, J. S. (1999). Personality disorders in adolescence and risk of major mental disorders and suicidality during adulthood. Archives of General Psychiatry, 56, 805811.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. G., Smailes, E. M., Cohen, P., Brown, J., & Bernstein, D. P. (2000). Associations between four types of childhood neglect and personality disorder symptoms during adolescence and early adulthood: Findings of a community-based longitudinal study. Journal of Personality Disorders, 14, 171187.Google Scholar
Joyce, P., McKenzie, J., Luty, S., Mulder, R., Carter, J., Sullivan, P., et al. (2003). Temperament, childhood environment and psychopathology as risk factors for avoidant and borderline personality disorders. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 37, 756764.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kasen, S., Cohen, P., Skodol, A. E., Johnson, J. G., Smailes, E., & Brook, J. S. (2001). Alternative pathways of continuity: Childhood depression and adult personality disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 58, 231236.Google Scholar
Le Doux, J. E. (1996). The emotional brain. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Lenzenweger, M., & Cicchetti, D. (2005). Toward a developmental psychopathology approach to borderline personality disorder. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 893898.Google Scholar
Lewinsohn, P. M., Rohde, P., & Gau, J. M. (2003). Comparability of self-report checklist and interview data in the assessment of stressful life events in young adults. Psychological Reports, 93, 459471.Google Scholar
Liest, T., & Dadds, M. R. (2009). Adolescents' ability to read different emotional faces relates to their history of maltreatment and type of psychopathology. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 14, 237250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linehan, M. M. (1993). Cognitive–behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Nelson, E. E., Leibenluft, E., McClure, E. B., & Pine, D. S. (2005). The social re-orientation of adolescence: A neuroscience perspective on the process and its relation to psychopathology. Psychological Medicine, 35, 163174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nunes, P. M., Wenzel, A., Borges, K. T., Porto, C. R., Caminha, R. M., & de Oliveira, I. R. (2009). Volumes of the hippocampus and amygdala in patients with borderline personality disorder: A meta-analysis. Journal of Personality Disorders, 23, 333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oldfield, R. C. (1971). The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh handedness inventory. Neuropsychology, 9, 97114.Google Scholar
Orvaschel, H., & Puig-Antich, J. (1994). Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Aged Children: Epidemiological version. Fort Lauderdale, FL: Nova Southeastern University, Center for Psychological Studies.Google Scholar
Paris, J. (1997). Antisocial and borderline personality disorders: Two separate diagnoses or two aspects of the same psychopathology? Comprehensive Psychiatry, 38, 237242.Google Scholar
Paus, T. (2005). Mapping brain maturation and cognitive development during adolescence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 6068.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Putnam, S., Ellis, L., & Rothbart, M. (2001). The structure of temperament from infancy through adolescence. In Eliasz, A. & Angleitner, A. (Eds.), Advances in research on temperament. Lengerich, Germany: Pabst Science Publishers.Google Scholar
Raine, A., Buchsbaum, M., & LaCasse, L. (1997). Brain abnormalities in murderers indicated by positron emission tomography. Biological Psychiatry, 42, 495508.Google Scholar
Raine, A., Ishikawa, S. S., Arce, E., Lencz, T., Knuth, K. H., Bihrle, S., et al. (2004). Hippocampal structural asymmetry in unsuccessful psychopaths. Biological Psychiatry, 55, 185191.Google Scholar
Reichborn-Kjennerud, T. (2010). Genetics of personality disorders. Clinics in Laboratory Medicine, 30, 893910.Google Scholar
Rettew, D. C., Copeland, W., Stanger, C., & Hudziak, J. J. (2004). Associations between temperament and DSM-IV externalizing disorders in children and adolescents. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 25, 383391.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M., & Ahadi, S. (1994). Temperament and the development of personality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 5566.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M., Ahadi, S., & Evans, D. (2000). Temperament and personality: Origins and outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 122135.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M., & Bates, J. (2006). Temperament. In Eisenberg, N., Damon, W., & Richard, L. M. (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., pp. 99166). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Samuel, D., & Widiger, T. (2008). A meta-analytic review of the relationships between the five-factor model and DSM-IV-TR personality disorders: A facet level analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 28, 13261342.Google Scholar
Schafer, J. L., & Graham, J. W. (2002). Missing data: Our view of the state of the art. Psychological Methods, 7, 147177.Google Scholar
Shaffer, D., Gould, M. S., Brasic, J., Ambrosini, P., Fisher, P., Bird, H., et al. (1983). A Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS). Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 12281231.Google Scholar
Shaw, P., Greenstein, D., Lerch, J., Clasen, L., Lenroot, R., Gogtay, N., et al. (2006). Intellectual ability and cortical development in children and adolescents. Nature, 440, 676679.Google Scholar
Skodol, A. E., Gunderson, J. G., McGlashan, T. H., Dyck, I. R., Stout, R. L., Bender, D. S., et al. (2002). Functional impairment in patients with schizotypal, borderline, avoidant, or obsessive–compulsive personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 276283.Google Scholar
Smith, S. M. (2002). Fast robust automated brain extraction. Human Brain Mapping, 17, 143155.Google Scholar
Soderstrom, H., Hultin, L., Tullberg, M., Wikkelso, C., Ekholm, S., & Forsman, A. (2002). Reduced frontotemporal perfusion in psychopathic personality. Psychiatry Research, 114, 8194.Google Scholar
StataCorp. (2009). Stata Statistical Software: Release 11.0. College Station, TX: Author.Google Scholar
Swendsen, J. D., Conway, K. P., Rounsaville, B. J., & Merikangas, K. R. (2002). Are personality traits familial risk factors for substance abuse? Results of a controlled family study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 17601766.Google Scholar
Szabo, C. A., Wyllie, E., Siavalas, E. L., Najm, I., Ruggieri, P., & Kotagal, P. (1999). Hippocampal volumetry in children 6 years or younger: Assessment of children with and without complex febrile seizures. Epilepsy Research, 33, 19.Google Scholar
Thompson, D. K., Wood, S. J., Doyle, L. W., Warfield, S. K., Egan, G. F., & Inder, T. E. (2009). MR-determined hippocampal asymmetry in full-term and preterm neonates. Hippocampus, 19, 118123.Google Scholar
Velakoulis, D., Pantelis, C., McGorry, P. D., Dudgeon, P., Brewer, W., Cook, C., et al. (1999). Hippocampal volume in first-episode psychoses and chronic schizophrenia—A high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 56, 133141.Google Scholar
Velakoulis, D., Wood, S. J., Wong, M. T., McGorry, P. D., Yung, A. R., Phillips, L., et al. (2006). Hippocampal and amygdala volumes according to psychosis stage and diagnosis—A magnetic resonance imaging study of chronic schizophrenia, first-episode psychosis, and ultra-high-risk individuals. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63, 139149.Google Scholar
Watson, C., Andermann, F., Gloor, P., Jones-Gotman, M., Peters, T., Evans, A., et al. (1992). Anatomic basis of amygdaloid and hippocampal volume measurement by magnetic resonance imaging. Neurology, 42, 17431750.Google Scholar
Whittle, S., Yap, M. B. H., Sheeber, L., Dudgeon, P., Yücel, M., Pantelis, C., et al. (2011). Hippocampal volume and sensitivity to maternal aggressive behavior: A prospective study of adolescent depressive symptoms. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 115129.Google Scholar
Whittle, S., Yucel, M., Fornito, A., Barrett, A., Wood, S. J., Lubman, D. I., et al. (2008). Neuroanatomical correlates of temperament in early adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 47, 682.Google Scholar
Yang, Y., & Raine, A. (2009). Prefrontal structural and functional brain imaging findings in antisocial, violent, and psychopathic individuals: A meta-analysis Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging, 174, 8188.Google Scholar
Zanarini, M. C., & Frankenburg, F. R. (1997). Pathways to the development of borderline personality disorder. Journal of Personality Disorders. Special Issue: Trauma and Personality Disorders, 11, 93104.Google Scholar
Zanarini, M. C., & Gunderson, J. G. (1997). Differential diagnoses of antisocial behavior and borderline personality disorder. In Stoff, D. M., Breiling, J., & Maser, J. D. (Eds.), Handbook of antisocial behavior. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Google Scholar
Zhang, Y., Brady, M., & Smith, S. (2001). Segmentation of brain MR images through a hidden Markov random field model and the expectation maximization algorithm. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 20, 4557.Google Scholar