Biased Emotional Processes in Borderline Personality Disorder: Electrophysiological Insights from an Implicit Association Test Task (Dataset)
Description
This dataset was collected to investigate the hypothesis that individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) traits exhibit implicit emotional biases and heightened neural reactivity to negative stimuli compared to healthy controls. The data demonstrates that participants with BPD traits responded faster to negative words in an Implicit Association Test (IAT) and showed distinct neural activity patterns in Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), particularly in the P2, N400, and Late Positive Potential (LPP) components. The dataset includes behavioral measures (reaction times and accuracy) from the IAT, as well as electrophysiological recordings obtained via EEG. Participants were classified into two groups (BPD-vulnerable and healthy controls) based on clinical assessments including the SCID-II, BSL-23, and self-reported history of self-harm. EEG data were collected using a 32-electrode cap and processed to extract ERP amplitudes for congruent and incongruent trials with both positive and negative emotional valence words. The findings can be interpreted to suggest that individuals with BPD traits have an implicit negativity bias and altered cognitive-emotional processing mechanisms. This dataset can be used to explore the relationship between implicit biases, emotional processing, and neural activity, offering potential applications for further research in psychopathology and cognitive neuroscience.