Dr. Chiu will evaluate a potential framework to explain how, in borderline personality disorder (BPD), people process social information about perception of the self in relation to others. BPD is a mental illness rooted fundamentally in a biased view of the self. Dr. Chiu hypothesizes that dual mechanisms may contribute synergistically to the misperception of social information in people with BPD, resulting in fluctuating mood state and impulsive behavior that disturbs social and occupational functions. In this project, patients with BPD, other mood or anxiety disorders, and healthy controls will be compared. By marking the continuous variation in the socio-cognitive propensities and early relational experiences in community residents with varying degrees of BPD traits, Dr. Chiu hopes to reveal a spectrum of phenotypes, which may heighten understanding of the interaction between traumatic stress and brain function in the development of BPD.
