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Journal of Health Psychology Mar 2022The gold standard for measuring anhedonia is the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS). To date, there are no validated electronic versions of this questionnaire. We...
The gold standard for measuring anhedonia is the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS). To date, there are no validated electronic versions of this questionnaire. We aim to study the equivalence between the traditional paper-and-pencil format and a digital version of the SHAPS. A group of 67 patients completed both SHAPS formats, and differences between formats were assessed. McNemar's test showed no significant differences between the two systems. The Kappa coefficient was over 40% for most items, and reliability was above 0.8, showing good to excellent levels of internal consistency. Thus, we have demonstrated a close equivalence between paper-and-pencil and electronic SHAPS.
Topics: Anhedonia; Depressive Disorder, Major; Electronics; Humans; Pleasure; Reproducibility of Results
PubMed: 33040577
DOI: 10.1177/1359105320963552 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Nov 2019Compulsive feeding has been considered as an addicted-like behavior with similarities to drug addiction. Food intake is brain controlled involving a balance between... (Review)
Review
Compulsive feeding has been considered as an addicted-like behavior with similarities to drug addiction. Food intake is brain controlled involving a balance between metabolic and hedonic pathways that modulate respectively how much and what is eaten. Pathological conditions such as compulsive feeding or an eating addiction can interfere with this balance and obesity may develop. Daily feeding times are also centrally controlled by the circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Disruptions of this body clock (e.g., social jet-lag, shift work) lead to eating and metabolic disorders. The circadian pacemaker is intricately connected with the metabolic and hedonic centers controlling feeding, and most importantly, some of these nuclei have clock activity. When the brain circadian system is compromised in eating disorders, such perturbations may be in part the causes of compulsive feeding, night eating and addictive-like eating behavior. Therefore, food intake is regulated by the central circadian-metabolic-hedonic network, which is functionally interconnected to avoid perturbing the eating behavior physiology.
Topics: Animals; Behavior, Addictive; Circadian Clocks; Feeding Behavior; Feeding and Eating Disorders; Humans; Nerve Net; Pleasure
PubMed: 29990504
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.07.003 -
PloS One 2020From year-to-year, environment is becoming one of the major concerns of human societies. Few studies have investigated the biological processes involved in environmental...
From year-to-year, environment is becoming one of the major concerns of human societies. Few studies have investigated the biological processes involved in environmental scene perception. Here, we initiate a line of research by beginning to study emotional processes involved in this perception. Our results demonstrate a clear distinction between "Clean" and "Polluted" environments according to the pleasure and approach desire ratings they induced. Moreover, women expressed higher pleasure in the "Clean" condition, as did older participants. Finally, rural scenes induced higher pleasure in participants than urban ones.
Topics: Adult; Age Factors; Emotions; Environmental Pollution; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Nontherapeutic Human Experimentation; Pleasure
PubMed: 32584844
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234210 -
Journal of American College Health : J... Nov 2023ObjectiveWe explored college students' sexual pleasure using a new self-report measure, the Body, Emotions, Sensations, Touch/Trust (B.E.S.T.) Scale of Sexual Pleasure....
ObjectiveWe explored college students' sexual pleasure using a new self-report measure, the Body, Emotions, Sensations, Touch/Trust (B.E.S.T.) Scale of Sexual Pleasure. Data were from 3997 randomly sampled students with a partnered sexual experience. Students completed an online survey about their most recent partnered sexual experience. Data was collected in January 2020. Students find the nonphysical aspects of partnered sex (e.g., emotions, trust, connection with partners) as pleasurable as physical aspects (e.g., behaviors engaged and received, bodily sensations). Self-reported arousal, wantedness, and emotional intimacy were the strongest correlates of male, female, and transgender/gender non-binary students' sexual pleasure. Few sexual behaviors were associated with sexual pleasure and only one - cuddling for women - was associated with greater sexual pleasure. : Students find their partnered sexual experiences pleasurable. Students' sex may be more pleasurable when they feel ready for sex, desire sex, and feel close to their partners.
Topics: Female; Male; Humans; Pleasure; Students; Universities; Sexual Behavior; Sexual Partners
PubMed: 34634225
DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2021.1978461 -
International Journal of Obesity (2005) Feb 2020Increased portion size is an essential contributor to the current obesity epidemic. The decision of how much to eat before a meal begins (i.e. pre-meal planning), and...
BACKGROUND
Increased portion size is an essential contributor to the current obesity epidemic. The decision of how much to eat before a meal begins (i.e. pre-meal planning), and the attention assigned to this task, plays a vital role in our portion control.
OBJECTIVE
We investigated whether pre-meal planning can be influenced by a shift in mindset in individuals with overweight and obesity in order to influence portion size selection and brain activity.
DESIGN
We investigated the neural underpinnings of pre-meal planning in 36 adults of different weight groups (BMI < 25 kg/m and BMI ≥ 25 kg/m) by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging. To examine the important role of attentional focus, participants were instructed to focus their mindset on the health effects of food, expected pleasure, or their intention to stay full until dinnertime, while choosing their portion size for lunch.
RESULTS
We observed that participants of all weight groups reduced their portion size when adopting a health mindset, which was accompanied by enhanced activation of the self-control network (i.e. left prefrontal cortex). Fullness and pleasure mindsets resulted in contrasting reward responses in individuals with overweight and obesity compared to normal-weight individuals. Under the pleasure mindset, persons with overweight and obesity showed heightened activity in parts of the taste cortex (i.e. right frontal operculum), while the fullness mindset caused reduced activation in the ventral striatum, an important component of the reward system. Moreover, participants with overweight and obesity did not modify their behaviour under the pleasure mindset and selected larger portions than the normal-weight group.
CONCLUSIONS
We were able to identify specific brain response patterns as participants made a final choice of a portion size. The results demonstrate that different brain responses and behaviours during pre-meal planning can inform the development of effective strategies for healthy weight management.
Topics: Adult; Brain; Female; Health Behavior; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Obesity; Overweight; Pleasure; Portion Size; Reward; Self-Control; Young Adult
PubMed: 31213656
DOI: 10.1038/s41366-019-0400-6 -
Attention, Perception & Psychophysics Apr 2021How many pleasures can you track? In a previous study, we showed that people can simultaneously track the pleasure they experience from two images. Here, we push...
How many pleasures can you track? In a previous study, we showed that people can simultaneously track the pleasure they experience from two images. Here, we push further, probing the individual and combined pleasures felt from seeing four images in one glimpse. Participants (N = 25) viewed 36 images spanning the entire range of pleasure. Each trial presented an array of four images, one in each quadrant of the screen, for 200 ms. On 80% of the trials, a central line cue pointed, randomly, at some screen corner either before (precue) or after (postcue) the images were shown. The cue indicated which image (the target) to rate while ignoring the others (distractors). On the other 20% of trials, an X cue requested a rating of the combined pleasure of all four images. Later, for baseline reference, we obtained a single-pleasure rating for each image shown alone. When precued, participants faithfully reported the pleasure of the target. When postcued, however, the mean ratings of images that are intensely pleasurable when seen alone (pleasure >4.5 on a 1-9 scale) dropped below baseline. Regardless of cue timing, the rating of the combined pleasure of four images was a linear transform of the average baseline pleasures of all four images. Thus, while people can faithfully track two pleasures, they cannot track four. Instead, the pleasure of otherwise above-medium-pleasure images is diminished, mimicking the effect of a distracting task.
Topics: Emotions; Humans; Pleasure
PubMed: 33205370
DOI: 10.3758/s13414-020-02175-z -
Psychiatry Research Oct 2021Anhedonia is the loss of pleasure or motivation to engage in previously enjoyable activities, and is a transdiagnostic symptom associated with significant clinical... (Review)
Review
Anhedonia is the loss of pleasure or motivation to engage in previously enjoyable activities, and is a transdiagnostic symptom associated with significant clinical impairment. Anhedonia is implicated in several different psychiatric disorders, presenting a promising opportunity for transdiagnostic treatment. Thus, developing targeted treatments for anhedonia is of critical importance for population mental health. An important first step in doing so is establishing a thorough understanding of the neural correlates of anhedonia. The Triple Network Model of Psychopathology provides a frame for how brain activity may go awry in anhedonia, specifically in the context of Salience Network (SN) function (i.e., saliency-mapping). We present a narrative review examining saliency-mapping as it relates to anhedonia severity in depressed and transdiagnostic adult samples. Results revealed increased anhedonia to be associated with hyperactivity of the SN at rest and in the context of negative stimuli, as well as a global lack of SN engagement in the context of positive stimuli. Potential treatments for anhedonia are placed within this model, and future directions for research are discussed.
Topics: Adult; Anhedonia; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Motivation; Pleasure; Reward
PubMed: 34333324
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2021.114123 -
PloS One 2024The networks proposed here show how neurons can be connected to form flip-flops, the basic building blocks in sequential logic systems. The novel neural flip-flops...
The networks proposed here show how neurons can be connected to form flip-flops, the basic building blocks in sequential logic systems. The novel neural flip-flops (NFFs) are explicit, dynamic, and can generate known phenomena of short-term memory. For each network design, all neurons, connections, and types of synapses are shown explicitly. The neurons' operation depends only on explicitly stated, minimal properties of excitement and inhibition. This operation is dynamic in the sense that the level of neuron activity is the only cellular change, making the NFFs' operation consistent with the speed of most brain functions. Memory tests have shown that certain neurons fire continuously at a high frequency while information is held in short-term memory. These neurons exhibit seven characteristics associated with memory formation, retention, retrieval, termination, and errors. One of the neurons in each of the NFFs produces all of the characteristics. This neuron and a second neighboring neuron together predict eight unknown phenomena. These predictions can be tested by the same methods that led to the discovery of the first seven phenomena. NFFs, together with a decoder from a previous paper, suggest a resolution to the longstanding controversy of whether short-term memory depends on neurons firing persistently or in brief, coordinated bursts. Two novel NFFs are composed of two and four neurons. Their designs follow directly from a standard electronic flip-flop design by moving each negation symbol from one end of the connection to the other. This does not affect the logic of the network, but it changes the logic of each component to a logic function that can be implemented by a single neuron. This transformation is reversible and is apparently new to engineering as well as neuroscience.
Topics: Memory, Short-Term; Neurons; Logic; Synapses; Pleasure
PubMed: 38489250
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300534 -
NeuroImage Jul 2020The sensation of groove has been defined as the pleasurable desire to move to music, suggesting that both motor timing and reward processes are involved in this...
The sensation of groove has been defined as the pleasurable desire to move to music, suggesting that both motor timing and reward processes are involved in this experience. Although many studies have investigated rhythmic timing and musical reward separately, none have examined whether the associated cortical and subcortical networks are engaged while participants listen to groove-based music. In the current study, musicians and non-musicians listened to and rated experimentally controlled groove-based stimuli while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Medium complexity rhythms elicited higher ratings of pleasure and wanting to move and were associated with activity in regions linked to beat perception and reward, as well as prefrontal and parietal regions implicated in generating and updating stimuli-based expectations. Activity in basal ganglia regions of interest, including the nucleus accumbens, caudate and putamen, was associated with ratings of pleasure and wanting to move, supporting their important role in the sensation of groove. We propose a model in which different cortico-striatal circuits interact to support the mechanisms underlying groove, including internal generation of the beat, beat-based expectations, and expectation-based affect. These results show that the sensation of groove is supported by motor and reward networks in the brain and, along with our proposed model, suggest that the basal ganglia are crucial nodes in networks that interact to generate this powerful response to music.
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Adult; Auditory Perception; Basal Ganglia; Brain Mapping; Dancing; Female; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Motivation; Music; Periodicity; Pleasure; Reward
PubMed: 32217163
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116768 -
Annals of the New York Academy of... Aug 2022Interindividual differences in music-related reward have been characterized as involving five main facets: musical seeking, emotion evocation, mood regulation, social...
Interindividual differences in music-related reward have been characterized as involving five main facets: musical seeking, emotion evocation, mood regulation, social reward, and sensory-motor. An interesting concept related to how humans decode music as a rewarding experience is music transcendence or absorption (i.e., music-driven states of complete immersion, including momentary loss of self-consciousness or even time-space disorientation). Here, we investigated the relation between previously characterized facets of music reward and individual differences in music absorption. A first sample of participants (N = 370) completed both the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ) and the Absorption in Music Scale (AIMS). Results showed that both constructs were highly interrelated (r = 0.78, p < 0.001), indicating that higher music reward sensitivity is associated with a greater tendency to music-related absorption states. In addition, four items from the AIMS were identified as suitable to be added to an extended version of the BMRQ (eBMRQ). A second sample (N = 550) completed the eBMRQ for a validation study. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on the whole sample (N = 920) showed the reliable psychometric properties of the eBMRQ and suggested that taking into account an absorption facet could contribute to a better characterization of individual differences in the sensitivity to experience music-related reward and pleasure.
Topics: Emotions; Humans; Individuality; Memory Disorders; Music; Pleasure; Reward
PubMed: 35589672
DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14790