The nature of emotions and their neural underpinnings remain debated. Appraisal theories such as the component process model propose that the perception and evaluation of events (appraisal) is the key to eliciting the range of emotions we experience. Here we study whether the framework of appraisal theories provides a clearer account for the differentiation of emotional episodes and their functional organisation in the brain. We developed a stealth game to manipulate appraisals in a systematic yet immersive way. The interactive nature of video games heightens self-relevance through the experience of goal-directed action or reaction, evoking strong emotions. We show that our manipulations led to changes in behaviour, physiology and brain activations.

A fundamental question in affective sciences is how the human mind decides if, and in what intensity, to elicit an affective response. Appraisal theories assume that preceding the affective response, there is an evaluation stage in which dimensions of an event are being appraised. Common to most appraisal theories is the assumption that the evaluation phase involves the assessment of the stimulus’ relevance to the perceiver’s well-being. In this talk, I first discuss conceptual and methodological challenges in investigating relevance appraisal. Next, I present two lines of experiments that ask how the human mind uses information about objective and subjective probabilities in the decision about the intensity of the emotional response and how these are affected by the valence of the event. The potential contribution of the results to appraisal theory is discussed.