To examine changes in neurocognitive processing of emotional information in adolescents with NSSI following a 12-week clinical intervention, highlighting its potential impact on emotion regulation.
Key Findings:
Self-injury ideation days and NSSI episode frequency significantly decreased post-intervention, indicating improved emotional regulation.
MMN amplitude to negative stimuli decreased, suggesting reduced automatic salience detection, which may reflect a shift in emotional processing.
P3 amplitude to negative stimuli increased, indicating enhanced controlled evaluation, which is crucial for adaptive emotion regulation.
No significant changes were observed in responses to positive and neutral conditions, suggesting a specific effect on negative emotional processing.
Interpretation:
The intervention may reduce automatic negative bias and enhance controlled evaluative processing in adolescents with NSSI, aligning with the implicit–explicit emotion regulation framework, which underscores the importance of both automatic and controlled processes in emotional regulation.
Limitations:
Small sample size of 32 adolescents may limit generalizability and statistical power.
No baseline ERP-clinical correlations were found, complicating interpretation of results and raising concerns about potential biases in self-reported measures.
Conclusion:
The study suggests that MMN and P3 could serve as biomarkers for tracking intervention responses in adolescents with NSSI, highlighting the need for further research to explore their clinical utility.
