Prone to excitement: adolescent females with Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) show altered cortical pattern to emotional and NSS-related material.
Emotion-regulation difficulties have been identified as one of the core components in Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), a behaviour often beginning in adolescence. This pilot study evaluated differences in emotion processing between 18 female adolescents with and without NSSI by using verbal responses and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Responses to pictures taken from the International Affective Picture System and slides with reference to NSSI were recorded both by verbal rating of valence and arousal and by fMRI. The NSSI group rated pictures with self-injurious reference as significantly more arousing than controls. For emotional pictures, the NSSI group showed a significantly stronger brain response in the amygdala, hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex bilaterally. Depression explained differences between groups in the limbic area. Furthermore, the NSSI group also showed increased activity in the middle orbitofrontal cortex, and inferior and middle frontal cortex when viewing NSSI picture material. Participants with NSSI showed decreased activity in correlation to arousal in the occipital cortex and to valence in inferior frontal cortex when watching emotional pictures. The fMRI data support the notion that individuals with NSSI show an altered neural pattern for emotional and NSSI pictures. Behavioural data highlight proneness to excitement regarding NSSI topics. This fMRI study provides evidence for emotion-regulation deficits in the developing brain of adolescents with NSSI.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
Paul L
PL
Plener
Nikola
N
Bubalo
Anne K
AK
Fladung
Andrea G
AG
Ludolph
Dorothée
D
Lulé
D000293:Adolescent; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D009929:Organ Size / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D012016:Reference Values; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology