Impulse control is crucial for everyday functioning in modern society. People with borderline personality disorder (BPD) suffer from impulse control impairment. According to the theory of dual mechanisms of control, motor impulse control can be divided into proactive and reactive modes. Proactive inhibition is involved before the event that might require inhibitory control. Reactive inhibition is initiated after the occurrence of the event that requires inhibitory control. Few studies focused

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... proactive inhibition in relation to impaired impulse control, moreover electrophysiological evidence is scarce. Therefore, in search for electrophysiological correlates of proactive and reactive inhibitions, we assessed event-related potentials elicited during a modified emotionally neutral visual Go/NoGo task in 28 clinically impulsive BPD patients and 35 healthy control (HC) subjects. In both groups, proactive inhibition was associated with enhanced late prestimulus activity and suppressed poststimulus N2 component. In both groups, reactive inhibition was associated with enhanced poststimulus N2 and P3 components. We found no electrophysiological differences between HC subjects and BPD patients and both groups performed similarly in the task. Hence, the clinically observed impulse control impairment in the BPD might act through different mechanisms other than altered inhibitory control in an emotionally neutral task.