Lee Soo-Eun, Hur Ji-Won
Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA; School of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
School of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
Neuroimage. 2025 Aug 15;317:121339. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121339. Epub 2025 Jun 18.
Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a serious behavior that emerges during adolescence and young adulthood, a time of substantial cortical development and challenges in coping with social and emotional stress. However, there is a significant gap in research regarding the neurophysiological basis that may underlie socio-affective difficulties in individuals with NSSI. This study aimed to address this gap by examining changes in structural covariance networks (SCNs) and their associations with socio-affective dysfunctions in individuals with NSSI. Sixty-one individuals with NSSI and 62 healthy controls completed anatomical T1-weighted MRI scans and self-report questionnaires on emotion dysregulation and emotional contagion. Individualized SCNs were constructed using cortical thickness measures, and graph theoretical analysis was applied to examine the global and regional properties of these networks. Compared to controls, individuals with NSSI exhibited significantly reduced global efficiency, local efficiency, global clustering coefficient, regional nodal strength in the right insula, but increased hubness in the middle posterior cingulate cortex (mPCC). Lower nodal strength in the insula was correlated with diminished positive emotional contagion, while greater hubness in the mPCC was linked to heightened emotion dysregulation in the NSSI group. Taken together, our results provide preliminary evidence suggesting that NSSI may be associated with reduced efficiency in brain network organization, particularly in regions associated with socio-affective functioning. These findings highlight the necessity of targeted interventions that enhance positive emotional contagion and improve emotion regulation strategies, offering a promising direction for clinical practice.
非自杀性自伤行为(NSSI)是一种在青少年和青年期出现的严重行为,这一时期正是大脑皮层大量发育以及应对社会和情感压力面临挑战的阶段。然而,关于NSSI个体社会情感困难背后潜在的神经生理基础的研究存在显著差距。本研究旨在通过检查结构协方差网络(SCNs)的变化及其与NSSI个体社会情感功能障碍的关联来填补这一差距。61名有NSSI行为的个体和62名健康对照者完成了解剖学T1加权磁共振成像扫描以及关于情绪调节障碍和情绪感染的自我报告问卷。利用皮层厚度测量构建个体特异性的SCNs,并应用图论分析来检查这些网络的全局和局部特性。与对照组相比,有NSSI行为的个体表现出全局效率、局部效率、全局聚类系数显著降低,右侧脑岛的区域节点强度降低,但中后扣带回皮质(mPCC)的中心性增加。脑岛较低的节点强度与积极情绪感染的减弱相关,而mPCC较高的中心性与NSSI组中情绪调节障碍的加剧有关。综合来看,我们的结果提供了初步证据,表明NSSI可能与大脑网络组织效率降低有关,尤其是在与社会情感功能相关的区域。这些发现凸显了针对性干预措施的必要性,这些措施可增强积极情绪感染并改善情绪调节策略,为临床实践提供了一个有前景的方向。