Nocturnal enuresis is a common and distressing developmental disease, which may cause various degrees of psychosocial stress and impairment to self-esteem in affected children as well as agitation to their parents or caregivers. Nevertheless, the etiology and pathogenesis of
nocturnal enuresis are not understood. Currently,
nocturnal enuresis is generally considered a multifactorial disease associated with a complex interaction of somatic, psychosocial, and environmental factors. A variety of postulations have been proposed to explain the occurrence and progression of
nocturnal enuresis, including hereditary aberration, abnormal circadian rhythm of
antidiuretic hormone secretion during sleep, bladder dysfunction, abnormal sleep, difficulties in arousal, neuropsychological disorders, and maturational delays of the brain. In recent decades, the introduction of functional neuroimaging technologies has provided new approaches for uncovering the mechanisms underlying
nocturnal enuresis. The main neuroimaging modalities have included brain morphometry based on structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), task-based and event-related functional MRI (fMRI), and resting-state fMRI. The relevant studies have indicated that
nocturnal enuresis is associated with functional and structural alterations of the brain. In this review, we briefly summarized the popular hypotheses regarding the pathogenesis of
nocturnal enuresis and the current progress of functional neuroimaging studies in examining the underlying mechanisms thereof.