Associations between coherence and temporal parameters of narrative speech production in borderline personality disorder

Abstract

Narrative speech production (NSP), i.e., the conceptualization, linguistic formulation, and articulation of a story, is a multifaceted process underpinned by cognitive functions and mentalization ability, often impaired in individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD). This study examines differences in coherence and temporal parameters between individuals with BPD and healthy controls (HCs) and explores associations between these factors in both groups. Spontaneous speech of 33 BPD and 31 HC individuals was recorded in three task types (telling their previous day, retelling a story, picture sequences), tapping different cognitive functions. Local and global coherence were extracted with contextual sentence vectors, while temporal parameters were extracted with automatic speech recognition. A series of linear mixed-effects models revealed that NSP of individuals with BPD is mainly characterized by significantly lower global coherence and speech rate and higher number of silent and filled pauses than HCs'. Global coherence displayed significant between-group differences only in picture tasks and correlated with picture arrangement. Spearman correlation matrix showed a significant negative association between global coherence and speech rate within the BPD group and an opposite tendency among HCs. Findings indicate that individuals with BPD might benefit from speaking at a slower pace to improve global coherence in their narratives.

Keywords: Borderline personality disorder; Coherence; Natural language processing; Pauses; Picture arrangement task; Speech rate; narrative speech production.