Can you feel it? Altered affective touch perception in a transdiagnostic sample of female adolescents with nonsuicidal self-injury.

ABSTRACT: Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), intentionally inflicting harm to one's body without suicidal intent, is a significant mental health problem in adolescents. Biological mechanisms underlying NSSI are still not well understood but there is some support for altered pain sensitivity. Here we explored the processing of affective touch, an interoceptive modality which has not been explored previously in NSSI. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined how adolescents with NSSI (N = 27), compared to controls (N = 26), responded to stroking touch. In the scanner, participants rated the pleasantness and intensity of slow and fast stroking touch on their forearm. A small-volume correction analysis focusing on bilateral insula was performed in addition to a whole-brain analysis. For both

SUBMITTER: Zetterqvist M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12669740 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature