Key terms and concepts that may be included in student responses:
▪ Neuroimaging studies show that the amygdala and hippocampus of people with borderline personality disorder are smaller in volume than those of people without the disorder.
▪ People with borderline personality disorder have greater activation of the amygdala in response to pictures of emotional faces, which may partly explain the difficulty they have in regulating their moods.Neuroimaging studies also have found structural and metabolic abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex of patients with borderline personality disorder.
▪ This area of the brain is important in the regulation of emotional reactions and control of impulsive behavior.
▪ Impaired functioning in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex has been linked with the emotional lability and dysregulation found in people with borderline personality disorder (Silvers et al., 2016).
▪ The neurobiological differences between people with borderline personality disorder and healthy individuals could be due to genetic factors.