First-of-its-Kind Study: Using a Novel Platform to Assess Patients With Borderline Personality Disorder

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Boehringer Ingelheim, the University of Oxford, and Cumulus Neuroscience are teaming up for a first-of-its-kind study that will use the novel NeuLogiq neuroassessment platform to quantify brain activity, mood, and behavior at home in individuals who have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Investigators hope to explore the acceptability of this novel technology and gain insights that could potentially guide future research and development of other new treatments.¹

“People diagnosed with borderline personality disorder experience a range of symptoms, including changeable mood, impulsivity, and associated difficulties in interpersonal relationships, all of which can have a significant impact on their lives,” said Kate Saunders, DPhil, MRCPsych, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Oxford. “We're looking forward to exploring this new technology in people living with BPD, in collaboration with the scientists at Cumulus and Boehringer Ingelheim, to gain new insights into the mechanisms which underpin the symptoms people given this diagnosis experience. This could open up pathways for the development of new therapies.”

Investigators will recruit 30 young adult participants who have been diagnosed with BPD and 20 young adult participants with no diagnosed mental health disorder, all aged 18 to 35. The study will be conducted by the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Oxford at the Warneford Hospital. This will be the first use of Cumulus´ NeuLogiq neuroassessment platform in individuals with BPD. The platform enables the tracking of brain function over time, both in the clinic and from the comfort of a study participant’s home, frequently collecting electroencephalogram (EEG), behavioral assessments, and remote measures of mood and activity.

“If this platform is successfully validated in this patient population, it could be a game-changer for studies investigating novel precision psychiatry treatments. It could help us identify biomarkers for stratification and provide a rich dataset for reverse-translation,” said Hugh Marston, senior vice president and global head of Neuroscience & Mental Health at Boehringer Ingelheim.

Participants use a tablet to perform gamified versions of established objective behavioral tasks while wearing the NeuLogiq headset, which records EEG brain waves that are precisely time-synced to the tasks. Investigators thus capture data that will provide a more accurate picture of brain network activity. This platform strongly differs from current clinical and lab-based assessments, which mainly rely on retrospective recall of symptoms and are thus limited by how accurately patients remember prior events. These self-reported questionnaires lack objectivity and can potentially lead to an incomplete picture of the patient’s experience.²

“Many psychiatric conditions disrupt cognitive function, meaning that patients may find it harder to manage their daily life or continue to work effectively,” said Brian Murphy, PhD, cofounder and chief scientific officer of Cumulus. “These underappreciated symptoms can change from day to day, so frequent real-world measurement is important if we want to find new therapies that improve activities of daily living and quality of life. Today, we are fortunate that wearable technologies and AI are enabling a new era of drug development where we can understand objectively how a drug affects cognitive function and the underlying brain mechanisms that drive it.”

“We are looking forward to working with people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and prioritizing research important to them,” said Lauren Atkinson, BSc(Hons), MSc, DPhil, from the University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry who will be senior researcher on the study says. “One of the key features of a BPD diagnosis is affective dysregulation. By regularly capturing mood, alongside measures of brain activity and cognitive function over an extended period of time, we hope to better capture patient experience and use objective measures to understand more about what is happening at those key moments.”

References

1. Breaking new ground in mental health research: Oxford University, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Cumulus Neuroscience launch first of its kind study investigating the day-to-day experience of patients with psychiatric disorders. News release. April 29, 2025. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/04/29/3070090/0/en/Breaking-new-ground-in-mental-health-research-Oxford-University-Boehringer-Ingelheim-and-Cumulus-Neuroscience-launch-first-of-its-kind-study-investigating-the-day-to-day-experience.html

2. Hasler G, Hopwood CJ, Jacob GA, et al. Patient-reported outcomes in borderline personality disorder. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2014;16(2):255-266.