Effects of Emotional Reactivity on Decision-Making in Adolescents With Nonsuicidal Self-Injury

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is defined as direct, intentional physical injury without suicidal intention. Studies revealed that dysfunctional interpersonal relationships and reward-related decision-making may play crucial roles in this maladaptive behavior, especially in adolescents. These interpersonal decision contexts are characterized by constant updating of expectations of rewards and the actual received rewards as well as the associated emotional reactions. These processes have recently been computationally formalized as prediction errors (PE), specifically reward PEs, valence PEs, and arousal PEs (Heffner et al., 2021; Nat Hum Behav). In the current study, the investigators aim to investigate whether these PEs make discernible contributions to social decisions in the context of unfair experiences among adolescents with NSSI and matched healthy control adolescents (HC). Specifically the investigators hypothesized that: 1) reward and emotional PEs show significant predictions of punishment decisions in both groups, 2) however, compared to HC adolescents, the NSSI group will exhibit selective dysfunctions in emotional but not reward PEs leading to punish a norm proposer who provided unfair offers.