Negative association between non‐suicidal self‐injury in adolescents and default mode network activation during the distraction blocks of a rumination task

Abstract

Introduction Rumination, or repetitive and habitual negative thinking, is associated with psychopathology and related behaviors in adolescents, including non‐suicidal self‐injury (NSSI). Despite the link between self‐reported rumination and NSSI, there is limited understanding of how rumination is represented at the neurobiological level among youth with NSSI. Method We collected neuroimaging and rumination data from 39 adolescents with current or past NSSI and remitted major depression. Participants completed a rumination induction fMRI task, consisting of both rumination and distraction blocks. We examined brain activation associated with total lifetime NSSI in the context of the rumination versus distraction contrast. Results Lifetime NSSI was associated with a greater discrepancy in activation during rumination relative to distraction conditions in clusters including the precuneus, posterior cingulate, superior, and middle frontal gyrus, and cerebellum. Conclusion Difficulties associated with rumination in adolescents with NSSI may be related to requiring greater cognitive effort to distract from ruminative content in addition to increased attention in the context of ruminative content. Increasing knowledge of neurobiological circuits and nodes associated with rumination and their relationship with NSSI may enable us to better tailor interventions that can facilitate lasting well‐being and neurobiological change.

Rumination Induction Task in fMRI: Test-Retest Reliability in Youth and Potential Mechanisms of Change with Intervention

“…Participants completed the Rumination Induction Task, which is a 9-minute block design completed in a single run with rumination and distraction conditions. We recently published some of these data, which examined the association between brain activation and non-suicidal self-injury (Westlund Schreiner et al, 2023). Our group has also used this task successfully with other adolescent samples (Bessette et al, 2020; Burkhouse et al, 2017).…”

“…We used tools from Anima (Voss et al, 2006) and Statistical Parametric Mapping 12 (SPM12; https://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/doc/) for preprocessing and first- and second-level analyses. Consistent with recent work (Westlund Schreiner et al, 2023) we completed preprocessing including echo-planar imaging (EPI) distortion correction, discarding the first 10 volumes of functional data, time-series realignment, high-resolution T1 co-registration, high- resolution T1 tissue segmentation, normalization of high-resolution and functional images to standard space (MNI), and 5mm Gaussian smoothing. We used SPM12 to complete first-level whole-brain activation analyses with the rumination induction data.…”