-
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Jun 2024Pleasure and pain are two fundamental, intertwined aspects of human emotions. Pleasurable sensations can reduce subjective feelings of pain and vice versa, and we often...
Pleasure and pain are two fundamental, intertwined aspects of human emotions. Pleasurable sensations can reduce subjective feelings of pain and vice versa, and we often perceive the termination of pain as pleasant and the absence of pleasure as unpleasant. This implies the existence of brain systems that integrate them into modality-general representations of affective experiences. Here, we examined representations of affective valence and intensity in an functional MRI (fMRI) study ( = 58) of sustained pleasure and pain. We found that the distinct subpopulations of voxels within the ventromedial and lateral prefrontal cortices, the orbitofrontal cortex, the anterior insula, and the amygdala were involved in decoding affective valence versus intensity. Affective valence and intensity predictive models showed significant decoding performance in an independent test dataset ( = 62). These models were differentially connected to distinct large-scale brain networks-the intensity model to the ventral attention network and the valence model to the limbic and default mode networks. Overall, this study identified the brain representations of affective valence and intensity across pleasure and pain, promoting a systems-level understanding of human affective experiences.
Topics: Humans; Pleasure; Male; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Female; Pain; Adult; Brain; Brain Mapping; Young Adult; Amygdala; Emotions; Prefrontal Cortex; Affect
PubMed: 38857402
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2310433121 -
Journal of the History of Medicine and... Jul 2023The visual archive of AIDS and fetish activism is a rich resource for studying interlinkages between art and science, activism and public health, politics and medicine,...
The visual archive of AIDS and fetish activism is a rich resource for studying interlinkages between art and science, activism and public health, politics and medicine, pleasure and sexual health prevention. This article explores AIDS and fetish activism imagery from the first two decades of the Norwegian AIDS crisis. Interrogating the materiality and visual context of images - photographs, posters, flyers, and safer sex instructions - it maps out visualization practices in leather, BDSM and AIDS activism. AIDS and fetish imagery made some bodies, pleasures, and political goals visible - and rendered others unseen. The article explores the materiality of images and their visual, social, and historical context of production, and traces their social biographies and afterlives. Fetish images were vehicles for change and actors co-producing history. They took part in destigmatizing BDSM, challenging psychiatric classification, and creating infrastructure and networks between subcultures, communities, and authorities. The visualization of fetish activism was as much about communication strategies as it was about aesthetic, style, and motive. The politics of visibility in Norwegian fetish activism point to the vulnerable project of fighting for acceptance through "respectability," while preserving the individuality and "otherness" of leather and fetish culture.
Topics: Humans; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Pleasure; Safe Sex; Public Health; Fetishism, Psychiatric; Politics
PubMed: 37011106
DOI: 10.1093/jhmas/jrad012 -
Revista Brasileira de Enfermagem 2023to analyze the experiences of pleasure and suffering of nursing workers in COVID-19 hospital units.
OBJECTIVE
to analyze the experiences of pleasure and suffering of nursing workers in COVID-19 hospital units.
METHODS
a multicenter, qualitative study, developed with 35 nursing workers from COVID-19 units in seven hospitals in southern Brazil. Data were produced through semi-structured interviews, submitted to thematic content analysis with the help of NVivo.
RESULTS
experiences of pleasure were linked to gratification, identification with work content, positive results in care, recognition, integration with the team and personal overcoming. Suffering was revealed in daily life of deaths and losses, feelings of helplessness, team conflicts, institutional demands, professional devaluation. Workers reported disenchantment, but also strengthening the meaning of their work, highlighting frontline impacts on their mental health.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
in the dynamics between pleasure and suffering in nursing work in COVID-19 hospital units, elements point to the risk of psychological illness.
Topics: Humans; Pleasure; COVID-19; Anxiety; Emotions; Hospital Units
PubMed: 37162102
DOI: 10.1590/0034-7167-2022-0356 -
Aging & Mental Health May 2022Music is ubiquitous. Despite the fact that most people find music enjoyable, there are individual differences in the degree to which listeners derive pleasure from...
Music is ubiquitous. Despite the fact that most people find music enjoyable, there are individual differences in the degree to which listeners derive pleasure from music. However, there has been little focus on how musical reward may change across the lifespan. Some theories predict that there would be little change, or even an increase in musical reward across the lifespan, while others suggest that older adults may have decreased capacity for musical reward. Here, we investigated musical reward across the lifespan. Participants consisted of American adults ranging between 20-85 years old ( = 20 participants in each 10-year age bin). Participants in Study 1 completed the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ), which is a multi-dimensional assessment of musical reward. We found a negative correlation between age and BMRQ scores, suggesting decreases in musical reward across the lifespan. When investigating which components were driving this effect, we found that the music seeking subscale was the strongest predictor of age. Participants in Study 2 completed the Aesthetic Experiences in Music Scale (AES-M), which focuses on intense emotional responses to music. In contrast to the BMRQ, we found no relationship between age and scores on the AES-M, suggesting that strong emotional responses to music are consistent across the lifespan. These results have implications for the use of music as a therapeutic tool in older adults. In addition, this work points to the importance of considering age when investigating reward for music and suggests that the ways individuals experience music may change across the lifespan.
Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Emotions; Humans; Longevity; Music; Pleasure; Reward
PubMed: 33442987
DOI: 10.1080/13607863.2021.1871881 -
Journal of the American Psychoanalytic... Jun 2022
Topics: Gender Identity; Homosexuality; Humans; Pleasure; Sexual and Gender Minorities; Writing
PubMed: 35938565
DOI: 10.1177/00030651221109924 -
BMC Psychiatry May 2022Gender differences have been found to be associated with individuals' pleasure. Cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity might play an important role between...
BACKGROUND
Gender differences have been found to be associated with individuals' pleasure. Cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity might play an important role between gender differences and pleasure. This current study is to explore the mediating role of cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity in the relationship between gender differences and pleasure.
METHOD
In this cross-sectional study, a sample of 1107 full-time university students from five colleges in Tianjin, Chinese mainland was investigated by questionnaire. All participants completed the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPs), the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI), and the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (BEQ).
RESULTS
The results of independent T-test suggested that females reported better emotional expressivity, anticipatory pleasure and consummatory pleasure than males, whereas males had better cognitive flexibility than females. Using bootstrapping approach revealed that the partially mediation effects of cognitive flexibility on gender differences in anticipatory and consummatory pleasure, and that of emotional expressivity on gender differences in anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. Results of this present study stated that cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity play a partial mediating role in explaining gender differences in anticipatory and consummatory pleasure.
CONCLUSION
Females had higher anticipatory and consummatory pleasure because they tend to use emotional regulation strategy to express their emotion.
Topics: Anhedonia; Cognition; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Male; Pleasure; Sex Factors; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 35513818
DOI: 10.1186/s12888-022-03945-9 -
Neuron Oct 2022In this issue of Neuron, Sun et al. (2022) identify a neuronal subpopulation in the medial paralemniscal nucleus that underlies repetitive self-grooming. Through their...
In this issue of Neuron, Sun et al. (2022) identify a neuronal subpopulation in the medial paralemniscal nucleus that underlies repetitive self-grooming. Through their projections to dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area, this subpopulation also drives reward and alleviates anxiety.
Topics: Animals; Pleasure; Ventral Tegmental Area; Dopaminergic Neurons; Reward
PubMed: 36265440
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2022.09.022 -
Child Development Jan 2023This 2-year longitudinal study examined relations between enjoyment of learning in Chinese and mathematics, two major subjects in Chinese schools, and indexes of school...
This 2-year longitudinal study examined relations between enjoyment of learning in Chinese and mathematics, two major subjects in Chinese schools, and indexes of school performance. The participants included 1041 students (501 boys) initially in third, fifth, and seventh grades (mean age = 10.49 years) in China. Data on enjoyment of Chinese and mathematics were collected from students' self-reports and data on school performance were collected from multiple sources in 2017 and 2019. The results showed that enjoyment of mathematics positively predicted later academic achievement, self-perceptions of academic competence, teacher-rated school competence, and peer-assessed leadership-social competence. Enjoyment of Chinese negatively predicted later mathematics achievement and self-perceptions of academic competence and nonsignificantly predicted other school performance variables. The results were discussed in Chinese context.
Topics: Male; Humans; Child; Adolescent; Pleasure; Longitudinal Studies; East Asian People; Happiness; Mathematics
PubMed: 36017533
DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13843 -
The Journal of Thoracic and... Mar 2022
Topics: Humans; Pain; Pleasure
PubMed: 33288238
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2020.10.098 -
PsyCh Journal Apr 2022The therapeutic effect of antidepressants has been demonstrated for anhedonia in patients with depression. However, antidepressants may cause side-effects, such as...
The therapeutic effect of antidepressants has been demonstrated for anhedonia in patients with depression. However, antidepressants may cause side-effects, such as cardiovascular dysfunction. Although physical activity has minor side-effects, it may serve as an alternative for improving anhedonia and depression. We sought to investigate whether physical activity reduces the level of anhedonia in individuals with depression. Fifty-six university students with moderate depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory total score > 16) were divided into three training groups: the Running Group (RG, n = 19), the Stretching Group (SG, n = 19), and the Control Group (n = 18). We employed the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task and the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) to evaluate hedonic capacity. All participants in the RG and SG received 8 weeks of jogging and stretching training, respectively. The RG experienced an increase in the level of arousal during anticipation of a future reward and recalled less negativity towards the loss condition. The SG exhibited enhanced scores on the Anticipatory and Consummatory Pleasure subscales of the TEPS after training. Moreover, in the RG, greater improvements in anticipatory arousal ratings for pleasure and remembered valence ratings for negative affect were associated with longer training duration, lower maximum heart rate, and higher consumed calories during training. To conclude, physical activity is effective in improving anticipatory anhedonia in individuals with depressive symptoms.
Topics: Anhedonia; Depression; Exercise; Humans; Motivation; Pleasure
PubMed: 34530499
DOI: 10.1002/pchj.485