Advances in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research on Adolescent Non-suicidal Self-injury
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Affiliation:

1School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518037, China;2Department of Psychology, Lingnan University, Hong Kong NT37, China;3Department of Child Health, Shenzhen Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Shenzhen 518028, China

Clc Number:

R749.94

Fund Project:

National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.62522608); Guangdong Provincial Project (No.2024TQ08X330); Science and Technology Innovation 2030—Major Projects (No.2021ZD0200500); Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen Basic Research Institution Program (No.2023SHIBS0003); Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (Nos.JCYJ20241202124222027 and JCYJ20241202124209011); Medical-Engineering Interdisciplinary Research Foundation of Shenzhen University (No.2024YG008); Hunan Provincial Key Research and Development Program (No.2025QK3008).

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    Abstract:

    Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a common high-risk behavior among adolescents and is closely associated with emotion regulation difficulties, increased suicide risk, and a range of psychiatric disorders. In recent years, advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have provided important tools for elucidating the neurobiological mechanisms underlying adolescent NSSI. This review summarizes neuroimaging evidence related to adolescent NSSI, with a focus on structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. Existing evidence suggests that adolescents with NSSI show gray matter structural abnormalities and impaired white matter integrity in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, frontal and temporal regions, as well as reward-related brain areas. Resting-state and task-based fMRI studies have further identified abnormal functional connectivity and neural activation in brain networks associated with emotion processing, pain regulation, reward processing, social cognition, and executive control. In addition, multimodal studies suggest that disrupted structure-function coupling may represent an important neural mechanism of NSSI. However, current research is limited by relatively small sample sizes, the predominance of cross-sectional designs, difficulties in controlling for psychiatric comorbidities, and substantial heterogeneity in analytical methods. Future studies should employ large-scale, multicenter, longitudinal, and multimodal approaches to identify stable and reliable neuroimaging biomarkers, thereby providing a neurobiological basis for the early identification, risk assessment, and precision intervention of adolescent NSSI.

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LIANG Zhen, ZHONG Shuting, XU Ying, HUANG Yi, ZHANG Li, HUANG Gan, ZHOU Yongjie. Advances in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research on Adolescent Non-suicidal Self-injury[J]. Journal of Data Acquisition and Processing,2026,(4):946-965.

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History
  • Received:June 03,2026
  • Revised:July 10,2026
  • Adopted:
  • Online: August 13,2026
  • Published:
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