Sensitivity to reward and punishment in adolescents with repetitive non-suicidal self-injury: The role of inhibitory control

Background

Repetitive Nonsuicidal Self-Injury (R-NSSI) is complex and prevalent in adolescents. Although the reward system is a promising mechanism to explain R-NSSI, the specific processes of reward and punishment related to R-NSSI remain unclear. This study examined whether adolescents with R-NSSI displayed difficulties in both reward and punishment contexts, and further explored the role of inhibitory control in processing monetary reward and punishment.

Methods

Within a cohort from two middle schools (N = 3,475, 48.6 % female, M_age = 12.95), a total of 187 adolescents completed three novel behavioral tasks. Specifically, in Study 1, 36 adolescents with R-NSSI and 28 without NSSI completed adapted incentive-delay tasks to evaluate sensitivity to reward and punishment. In Study 2, 27 adolescents with R-NSSI and 21 without NSSI were given novel incentive delay-two choice oddball task to evaluate the interaction between reward and inhibitory control. In Study 3, 38 adolescents with R-NSSI and 35 without NSSI completed similar task to assess the interaction between punishment and inhibitory control.

Results

Adolescents with R-NSSI were characterized by higher levels of behavioral reward and punishment sensitivity than adolescents without NSSI. More importantly, the difference between reward and punishment in inhibitory control of R-NSSI was found. Compared to adolescents without NSSI, adolescents with R-NSSI showed lower levels of inhibitory control in response to cues depicting punishment content but not to those depicting reward content.

Conclusions

This study provides novel experimental evidence that heightened behavioral sensitivity to both reward and punishment may be relevant trait marker in R-NSSI among adolescents, and emphasizes that punishment not reward interact with inhibitory control in the R-NSSI.