Fronto-Limbic Connectivity as a Predictor of Improvement in Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in Adolescents Following Psychotherapy

Default Mode and Salience Network Alterations in Suicidal and Non-Suicidal Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors in Adolescents with Depression

“…While we were unable to explicitly relate DMN-V coherence with instructions to reflect on one's future self, our findings are consistent with the formulation that suicidal ideation and non-suicidal self-injury are, in part, characterized by difficulties in imagining and planning for one's future. Future work is needed to test whether psychosocial therapies that target representations of the self and that engage the DMN-V are effective in treating adolescents experiencing SI and NSSI(13,31).We also found that NSSI+ exhibited lower DMN-A and SN-Ins coherence compared to both NSSI-and healthy controls; SI+ and SI-adolescents did not differ significantly in coherence of these networks, suggesting that these patterns are specific to NSSI. Several studies of adults with Borderline Personality Disorder and NSSI have shown altered DMN and SN connectivity in relation to pain processing (62, 63; for reviews, see 12 and 64).…”

“…In contrast, the DMN-V (which in our sample was centered in the middle temporal lobe, hippocampus, and parahippocampal region) has been shown in studies of healthy young adults to be a distinct subsystem of the DMN that is specifically involved in mnemonic scene construction and imagining one's future (34,59,60). Interestingly, activation in the middle temporal lobe specifically during reflection of death-and life-related concepts has also been previously identified as one of the most highly discriminative brain patterns between young adults with suicidal ideation and healthy controls when using machine learning (61 (31). The SN-Ins network derived in our sample was centered primarily in the insula, striatum, and somatosensory regions.…”

“…While we did not find group differences with respect to NSSI history in network coherence of the CEN or SN-ACC, we did find that depressed adolescents with NSSI exhibited higher connectivity between the CEN and DMN-P compared to both those without history of NSSI and healthy controls. Previous resting-state fMRI studies have only compared transdiagnostic samples of adolescents with NSSI to healthy controls (or have conducted withinindividual analyses in the context of a treatment study); in these studies, adolescents with NSSI were characterized by lower connectivity of the SN, as well as the DMN (31,32,33). Our study therefore clarifies the role of DMN connectivity in NSSI specifically by demonstrating that both within-and between-network connectivity of the DMN is compromised in adolescents with NSSI.…”

“…Resting-state fMRI studies in adolescents with NSSI have also implicated many of the same networks. Compared to healthy controls, transdiagnostic samples of adolescents with NSSI had lower resting-state functional connectivity among nodes of the SN (amygdala, ACC, insula; 31), between regions of the SN and DMN (31), between the amygdala and supplemental motor area and visual attention regions (32), and between the ventral striatum and superior medial frontal cortex (33). Moreover, in studies examining treatments for NSSI in adolescents, improvement of NSSI was associated with lower amygdala-based resting-state functional connectivity with the SN (ACC), DMN (medial PFC), and higher amygdala-based resting-state functional connectivity with parahippocampal regions and temporal gyrus (31,33).…”

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: An Observational Study in a Sample of Adolescents and Young Adults

“…Compared to healthy controls, adolescents and adults with NSSI showed diffuse abnormalities of amygdala circuits (frontal lobe, supplementary motor area, dorsal anterior cingulate and occipital lobe) and deficit in white matter microstructure in the uncinate fasciculus, cingulum, bilateral superior and inferior longitudinal fasciculi, anterior thalamic radiation, callosal body and corticospinal tract. On the one hand, such alterations seemed to worsen with frequent recurrence of NSSI behaviors and, on the other hand, could have a role as neurobiological targets for the individuation and management of specific therapeutic interventions [37][38][39].…”