Abstract:

For a suicidal person, suicide seems to be the only means of escaping the torment of psychological pain. Pain avoidance, representing the wish to escape psychological pain, may be a primary predictor of subsequent suicide. Given that the Orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction may trigger overreaction to a social signal of disapproval (painful feelings) and induced high level motivation for escaping from punishment (pain avoidance), event-related functional MRI was used to measure orbitofrontal cortex and its neural circuit activity in response to stimuli representing negative/positive emotional incentives among patients with a history of suicidal attempts (vs.no suicidal history) in furture work. Our work will extend interactive modes of motivation and cognitive control circuits underying higher levels of psychological pain and ultimately may provide a empiral evidence for the neural correlates of pain avoidance which trigger suicidal behavior.

Key words: suicidal attempt, depression, psychological pain, pain avoidance, orbitofrontal cortex