# Neurobehavioral Mechanisms of Social Dysfunction in Borderline Personality Disorder

> **NIH NIH R01** · VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV · 2021 · $641,202

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe mental health condition that confers significant psychological
and physical disability. Key features of the clinical presentation of borderline personality disorder include affect
dysregulation, impulsivity and unstable relationships. While these features are classically borne out within
social relationships, the neurobehavioral etiology of social decision-making in BPD has received limited
investigation, despite the prominent role that interpersonal dysfunction plays in the expression of the disorder.
To address this gap, the broad goal of this proposal is to detail the behavioral, computational and neural
processes underlying three candidate abnormalities in social decision-making within BPD: (i) biases in risk
appraisal when making decisions about social partners; (ii) hypersensitivity to prediction errors about social
rewards and punishments; and, (iii) aggression-related social learning abnormalities. Thus, we combine well-
characterized interactive games from decision neuroscience with functional magnetic resonance imaging to
develop a sensitive and specific neuromechanistic understanding of the biological basis of interpersonal
impairments in borderline PD. Specifically, we examine in BPD: (i) neural mechanisms underlying risk
preferences in social and non-social decision-making (Aim 1); (ii) neural mechanisms of social
reward/punishment sensitivity (Aim 2); and (iii) neural mechanisms contributing to impulsive interpersonal
aggression (Aim 3).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10088478
- **Project number:** 5R01MH115221-04
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV
- **Principal Investigator:** Brooks Casas
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $641,202
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-02-01 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10088478

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10088478, Neurobehavioral Mechanisms of Social Dysfunction in Borderline Personality Disorder (5R01MH115221-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10088478. Licensed CC0.

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