Citation

Dobbertin M, Blair KS, Aloi J, Bajaj S, Bashford-Largo J, Mathur A, Zhang R, Carollo E, Schwartz A, Elowsky J, Ringle JL, Tyler P, Blair RJ. Transl. Psychiatr. 2024; 14(1): e54.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2024, Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/s41398-023-02723-9

PMID

38263400

PMCID

PMC10806086

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States. However, relatively little is known about the forms of atypical neuro-cognitive function that are correlates of suicidal ideation (SI). One form of cognitive/affective function that, when dysfunctional, is associated with SI is emotion regulation. However, very little work has investigated the neural correlates of emotion dysregulation in adolescents with SI.

METHODS: Participants (N = 111 aged 12-18, 32 females, 31 [27.9%] reporting SI) were recruited shortly after their arrival at a residential care facility where they had been referred for behavioral and mental health problems. Daily reports of SI were collected during the participants' first 90-days in residential care. Participants were presented with a task-fMRI measure of emotion regulation - the Affective Number Stroop task shortly after recruitment. Participants were divided into two groups matched for age, sex and IQ based on whether they demonstrated SI.

RESULTS: Participants who demonstrated SI showed increased recruitment of regions including dorsomedial prefrontal cortex/supplemental motor area and parietal cortex during task (congruent and incongruent) relative to view trials in the context of emotional relative to neutral distracters.

CONCLUSIONS: Participants with SI showed increased recruitment of regions implicated in executive control during the performance of a task indexing automatic emotion regulation. Such data might suggest a relative inefficiency in the recruitment of these regions in individuals with SI.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescent; Humans; Female; Emotions; Suicidal Ideation; *Suicide; *Emotional Regulation; Executive Function