MRS at 3.0 Tesla for the analysis of the biochemistry and function of the amygdala in patients with borderline personality disorder and healthy controls

Introduction: The core of borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a neuronal dysfunction in a frontolimbic network. The amygdala is a key region of the limbic system and plays an important role in impulsivity, affect regulation and emotional information processing, and thus are likely related to BPD symptoms [1]. In contrast to other brain regions the amygdala is an extremely difficult region to acquire MR spectra from. We implemented a method for H MRS at 3T where we acquire data only within the small volume of the amygdala. The purpose of this study is to determine alterations of the metabolism in the amygdala of female patients with borderline personality disorder.