Cortical plasticity of the tactile mirror system in borderline personality disorder

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) show alterations in empathic abilities, potentially involving automatic simulation processes supported by mirror-like mechanisms in the somatosensory domain. Within the tactile mirror system (TaMS), observing touch on another person’s body activates cortical regions involved in tactile perception, including the primary somatosensory cortex (S1). Although mirror-like alterations have been suggested in BPD, the underlying mechanisms of plasticity remain underexplored. Here, we used a cross-modal paired associative stimulation (cm-PAS) protocol to investigate the plasticity mechanisms of TaMS functioning in BPD. Twenty-four individuals with BPD and 24 healthy controls (HCs) were included. Empathic abilities were assessed using self-report questionnaires. Participants performed tactile acuity and visuo-tactile spatial congruity (VTSC) tasks before and after a cm-PAS protocol. During cm-PAS, images of a hand being touched were paired with transcranial magnetic stimulation over the S1. The effects of cm-PAS were assessed on tactile acuity, as an index of S1 activity, and VTSC performance, as an index of TaMS functioning. Preregistered analyses revealed that patients with BPD tended to have lower cognitive empathy than HCs, with no significant cm-PAS effects on tactile acuity or VTSC performance in HCs, precluding between-group comparisons of plasticity effects. Exploratory analyses were conducted to further investigate potential sources of variability in the effects of cm-PAS, as well as the relationship between cognitive empathy and visuo-tactile processing as measure of TaMS functioning. Preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/sqnwd (date of in-principle acceptance: 25/06/2023).