ABSTRACT
Non-suicidal self-injury(NSSI) is defined as deliberate " destruction to body issue without conscious suicidal intent" and which is not culturally and socially sanctioned.The evaluation of NSSI mainly includes explicit measurement and implicit measurement.In recent years, implicit measurement has received wide attention from scholars, among which the implicit association task(IAT), as a tool to measure the relative attitude towards objects in individuals' implicit cognition and to prevent the interference of consciousness, which is an effective method to evaluate NSSI.On the basis of introducing the background of implicit attitude, this paper summarized the research progress of implicit attitude in distinguishing and predicting NSSI from behavioral and neuroimaging perspectives.Firstly, compared with the group without NSSI history, the NSSI group had a more recognized implicit attitude towards NSSI, which was correlated with the frequency and severity of NSSI.Secondly, compared with other known traditional predictors, whether implicit attitude is a better predictor of subsequent behavior of NSSI remains controversial.Finally, there are not many studies on the biological basis of implicit attitude towards NSSI in NSSI populations.Preliminary results suggest that the activation of salience networks and the reduction of gray matter volume in some brain regions (such as the dorsal striatum) may be related to implicit attitude in NSSI populations.To sum up, measuring implicit attitudes towards NSSI is useful for screening and predicting people at risk for NSSI, especially when individuals have false reports or low self-awareness.In addition, this paper also put out some shortcomings for future research and clinical intervention.