Background: Since the emergence of advanced brain imaging technologies, it has been possible to investigate the neural activity during an emotional experience. Based on basic emotion theories, many studies have attempted to identify dedicated brain areas for each emotion, but mostly generated inconclusive results. However, while appraisal theories have contributed to improve the understanding of emotion elicitation, fMRI studies relying on such models are still very scarce. Thus, the purpose of the study was to identify patterns of brain activation specifically related to different sub-checks of the appraisal component...