Objective of the present thesis was to investigate the emotional influences on subsequent brain activity. Behaviorally, lingering effects of emotions have been observed in a variety of indicators like subsequent cognitive performance or mood. However, underlying mechanisms of these effects are poorly understood. To address this issue, we focused either on resting state activity or on performance in an unrelated task following emotional exposure. Specifically, we studied how spontaneous neural activity is modulated after induction of negative and positive emotions, how functional coupling is affected in a prevalent anxiety disorder such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and how stress induction changes this pattern. We found significant changes triggered by both emotion induction and disease. Furthermore, we discovered 'signatures' of emotional brain states both in healthy and patient populations. Critically, we identified certain functional connections, which predict trait anxiety or account for symptoms of OCD at an individual level. In addition, we studied lingering effects of emotions that are triggered as a result of self-decision. Specifically, pride and regret effects were investigated in the subsequent resting activity. In this particular study, we found brain activation patterns, for the first time, which predict individual traits such as reward sensitivity and rumination tendency.