제목: Neural Correlates of Increased Emotion Reactivity and Decreased Emotion Regulation in Nonsuicidal Self-injury: an fMRI Study

발표자: 김규명

날짜: 2023년 9월 22일 (금) 오후 12시  

초록: Background: Emotion dysregulation is a key feature of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI); however, the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigates neural alterations during emotional processing in individuals with NSSI.

Methods: Twenty-nine unmedicated individuals with a history of NSSI and 25 controls matched for age, sex, and handedness participated in the emotion regulation paradigm during fMRI scans. All participants were instructed to attend to or regulate their emotions while viewing pictures from various emotional categories. Correlations between brain activity, self-reported emotion reactivity, and regulation were subsequently analyzed.

Results: Individuals with NSSI showed increased neural activation in the right parahippocampal gyrus and right superior temporal gyrus (STG) during negative emotion reactivity, and in the right middle temporal gyrus and left STG during positive emotion reactivity. Those with NSSI also exhibited decreased activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus, left supplementary motor area (SMA), right putamen, right lingual gyrus, and right STG during negative emotion regulation, and in the right STG, left ventral striatum, and left ventromedial prefrontal cortex during positive emotion regulation. Emotion dysregulation in the NSSI group correlated with increased STG activation during negative emotion reactivity and decreased SMA activation during negative emotion regulation.

Conclusions: This study provides the first neurological evidence of emotion processing difficulties in individuals with NSSI, revealing hyperactivation during emotion reactivity and hypoactivation during emotion regulation. These findings also provide novel insights into the neural basis of NSSI psychopathology and underscore the neurological rationale for therapeutic interventions that foster adaptive emotional experiences in individuals with NSSI.