Emotional residue from past or anticipated future events is common and can contribute to anxiety if exacerbated. The orbitofrontal cortex is a region that is widely implicated in anxiety disorders as well as future predictions. Here we demonstrate a double dissociation within this region, where the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) is specialized for prediction of future states, setting it apart from its medial counterpart (mOFC). Fifteen participants rated their arousal (Fig1a) while watching a movie under the scanner with a few 25-second rests inserted strategically. These were categorized as Ruminative (after high-intensity outcome), Anticipatory (before high-intensity outcome), or Control (neutral arousal), based on the arousal peaks of the movie (Fig1b), determined from an independent group's arousal ratings without rests. GLM-derived beta-values indicated progressively increasing lOFC activation with the predictive demand of the Rests; a pattern not mirrored in the mOFC, suggesting a functional distinction (Fig1c). Hidden Markov Modelling revealed varied dynamics of neural states, whose Coefficient of Variation in Fractional Occupancy of each state during the Rest periods was taken as a marker of future prediction. High values indicated a single state's dominance, suggestive of focused future outcome prediction, while low values denoted flexible transitions among states. Participants with intense emotions showed a single dominant state in their lOFC in subsequent Rests, specific to Anticipation, absent in the mOFC (Fig1d). These results suggest how unmet emotional predictions persist in the lOFC depending on experienced intensity, even in the absence of stimuli, highlighting its pervasive appearance in anxiety disorders.