A widely used and reliable challenge paradigm was employed to elicit amygdala reactivity. The paradigm consists of 4 task blocks requiring face-matching interleaved with 5 control blocks requiring shape-matching. In each face-matching trial within a block, participants view a trio of faces derived from a standard set of facial affect pictures (Ekman & Friesen, 1975; expressing angry, fearful, surprised, or neutral emotions) and select which of 2 faces presented on the bottom row of the display matches the target stimulus presented on the top row. Each emotion-specific block (e.g., fearful facial expressions only) consists of 6 individual trials, balanced for gender of the face. Block order is pseudo-randomized across participants. Each of the 6 face trios is presented for 4 seconds with a variable inter-stimulus interval of 2-6 seconds; total block length is 48 seconds. In the shape-matching control blocks, participants view a trio of geometric shapes (i.e., circles, horizontal and vertical ellipses) and select which of 2 shapes displayed on the bottom matches the target shape presented on top. Each control block consists of 6 different shape trios presented
