Figure 1.

Task paradigm. On Day 1, the Pre-exposure session, participants complete a standard reappraisal task in the behavioral laboratory. On Reappraise trials participants down-regulate the negative emotions elicited by negative images and on Look trials they respond naturally to a matched set of images. This task is completed three times in succession with participants repeatedly Reappraising or Looking at the same images each time. On Day 2, the Active Regulation session, participants complete the reappraisal task in the scanner. On Repeated presentation trials, they once again Reappraise or Look at the images they had Reappraised or Looked at in the Pre-exposure session. On Single presentation trials, they Reappraise or Look at images seen for the first time in the scanning session. On Day 9, the Long-term Re-exposure session, participants passively view all images from the Active Regulation session along with Novel, never before seen, negative images. Inclusion of these images allows determination (see Figure 2) of whether amygdala responses to Repeatedly or Singly reappraised stimuli remain attenuated – as they were during Active Regulation – or whether amygdala responses have returned to their level of response to novel aversive events.