Images were collected using a 3 T Siemens Prisma Scanner with a 64-channel head coil. The neuroimaging data were analyzed using SPM12 (the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, London, UK; SPM12/">http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/software/SPM12/), running under MATLAB R14a (MathWorks Inc., Natick MA, USA). Our analysis included a standard pre-processing procedure (spatial realignment, coregistration, normalization and smoothing) and general linear modeling. We used region of interest (ROI) analyses; to this end, we selected a priori ROIs based on previous literature on neuronal underpinnings of controllability and created a combined mask containing these ROIs using Marina (http://www.bion.de/eng/MARINA.php) to correct for α-error accumulation associated with testing multiple ROIs. We additionally used a psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis as implemented in SPM12 to assess controllability-dependent connectivity changes between the vmPFC and the amygdala as the vmPFC–amygdala cross talk is assumed to play a critical role in the reduction of fear (Milad and Quirk, 2002 (link); Bouton et al., 2006 (link); Adhikari et al., 2015 (link)).
A more detailed description of the experimental procedure, behavioral analyses, skin conductance and imaging analyses is provided in the supplemental material.