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PloS One 2024Groove, or the pleasurable urge to move to music, offers unique insight into the relationship between emotion and action. The predictive coding of music model posits...
Groove, or the pleasurable urge to move to music, offers unique insight into the relationship between emotion and action. The predictive coding of music model posits that groove is linked to predictions of music formed over time, with stimuli of moderate complexity rated as most pleasurable and likely to engender movement. At the same time, listeners vary in the pleasure they derive from music listening: individuals with musical anhedonia report reduced pleasure during music listening despite no impairments in music perception and no general anhedonia. Little is known about musical anhedonics' subjective experience of groove. Here we examined the relationship between groove and music reward sensitivity. Participants (n = 287) heard drum-breaks that varied in perceived complexity, and rated each for pleasure and wanting to move. Musical anhedonics (n = 13) had significantly lower ratings compared to controls (n = 13) matched on music perception abilities and general anhedonia. However, both groups demonstrated the classic inverted-U relationship between ratings of pleasure & move and stimulus complexity, with ratings peaking for intermediately complex stimuli. Across our entire sample, pleasure ratings were most strongly related with music reward sensitivity for highly complex stimuli (i.e., there was an interaction between music reward sensitivity and stimulus complexity). Finally, the sensorimotor subscale of music reward was uniquely associated with move, but not pleasure, ratings above and beyond the five other dimensions of musical reward. Results highlight the multidimensional nature of reward sensitivity and suggest that pleasure and wanting to move are driven by overlapping but separable mechanisms.
Topics: Humans; Music; Anhedonia; Female; Male; Adult; Pleasure; Reward; Young Adult; Auditory Perception; Emotions; Adolescent; Acoustic Stimulation
PubMed: 38652721
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301478 -
Psychological Reports Aug 2023This paper describes the evaluation of the Happiness through Goal-Setting Training, a multiple intervention approach which helps participants to reflect on, and modify...
This paper describes the evaluation of the Happiness through Goal-Setting Training, a multiple intervention approach which helps participants to reflect on, and modify their reasons for goal pursuit. The training is theoretically grounded in the goal-striving reasons framework. This framework captures four important reasons for goal pursuit and has received a substantial amount of empirical support for its predictive power in relation to positive psychological functioning. The four goal-striving reasons are the pursuit of goals out of pleasure, altruism, fear of self-esteem loss or necessity. The evaluation of the training, employing a before-and-after study design, is based on two data sets comprising data from a face-to-face delivery of the training ( 41) and an online delivery of the training ( 40). Overall, the findings from both studies, using paired sample t-tests, show that the Happiness through Goal-Setting Training significantly improves the quality of people's reasons for goal pursuit as well as their positive psychological functioning measured through life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect and work-engagement. Thus, the Happiness through Goal-Setting Training complements the existing suite of well-being interventions by providing a happiness training that focusses specifically on improving people's reasons for goal-pursuit.
Topics: Humans; Happiness; Goals; Pleasure; Motivation; Self Concept
PubMed: 35084260
DOI: 10.1177/00332941211071007 -
The Journal of Neuroscience : the... Nov 2019Music ranks among the greatest human pleasures. It consistently engages the reward system, and converging evidence implies it exploits predictions to do so. Both...
Music ranks among the greatest human pleasures. It consistently engages the reward system, and converging evidence implies it exploits predictions to do so. Both prediction confirmations and errors are essential for understanding one's environment, and music offers many of each as it manipulates interacting patterns across multiple timescales. Learning models suggest that a balance of these outcomes (i.e., intermediate complexity) optimizes the reduction of uncertainty to rewarding and pleasurable effect. Yet evidence of a similar pattern in music is mixed, hampered by arbitrary measures of complexity. In the present studies, we applied a well-validated information-theoretic model of auditory expectation to systematically measure two key aspects of musical complexity: predictability (operationalized as information content [IC]), and uncertainty (entropy). In Study 1, we evaluated how these properties affect musical preferences in 43 male and female participants; in Study 2, we replicated Study 1 in an independent sample of 27 people and assessed the contribution of veridical predictability by presenting the same stimuli seven times. Both studies revealed significant quadratic effects of IC and entropy on liking that outperformed linear effects, indicating reliable preferences for music of intermediate complexity. An interaction between IC and entropy further suggested preferences for more predictability during more uncertain contexts, which would facilitate uncertainty reduction. Repeating stimuli decreased liking ratings but did not disrupt the preference for intermediate complexity. Together, these findings support long-hypothesized optimal zones of predictability and uncertainty in musical pleasure with formal modeling, relating the pleasure of music listening to the intrinsic reward of learning. Abstract pleasures, such as music, claim much of our time, energy, and money despite lacking any clear adaptive benefits like food or shelter. Yet as music manipulates patterns of melody, rhythm, and more, it proficiently exploits our expectations. Given the importance of anticipating and adapting to our ever-changing environments, making and evaluating uncertain predictions can have strong emotional effects. Accordingly, we present evidence that listeners consistently prefer music of intermediate predictive complexity, and that preferences shift toward expected musical outcomes in more uncertain contexts. These results are consistent with theories that emphasize the intrinsic reward of learning, both by updating inaccurate predictions and validating accurate ones, which is optimal in environments that present manageable predictive challenges (i.e., reducible uncertainty).
Topics: Acoustic Stimulation; Adolescent; Auditory Perception; Female; Forecasting; Humans; Learning; Male; Music; Pleasure; Random Allocation; Reward; Uncertainty; Young Adult
PubMed: 31636112
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0428-19.2019 -
Psychological Science Aug 2019Despite advances in the understanding of the reward system and the role of dopamine in recent decades, the heritability of the underlying neural mechanisms is not known....
Despite advances in the understanding of the reward system and the role of dopamine in recent decades, the heritability of the underlying neural mechanisms is not known. In the present study, we examined the hemodynamic activation of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), a key hub of the reward system, in 86 healthy monozygotic twins and 88 healthy dizygotic twins during a monetary-incentive-delay task. The participants also completed self-report measures of pleasure. Using voxelwise heritability mapping, we found that activation of the bilateral NAcc during the anticipation of monetary gains had significant heritability ( = .20-.49). Moreover, significant shared genetic covariance was observed between pleasure and NAcc activation during the anticipation of monetary gain. These findings suggest that both NAcc activation and self-reported pleasure may be heritable and that their phenotypic correlation may be partially explained by shared genetic variation.
Topics: Adolescent; Algorithms; Anticipation, Psychological; Brain Mapping; Cues; Dopamine; Genetic Variation; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Motivation; Nucleus Accumbens; Phenotype; Pleasure; Quantitative Trait, Heritable; Reward; Twins, Dizygotic; Twins, Monozygotic; Wills; Young Adult
PubMed: 31318629
DOI: 10.1177/0956797619859340 -
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 -
International Journal of Sexual Health... 2021Despite billions of dollars in funding spent each year on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and HIV programming, sexual pleasure is insufficiently...
Despite billions of dollars in funding spent each year on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and HIV programming, sexual pleasure is insufficiently addressed. This paper therefore has three key aims: (1) to introduce the concept of sexual pleasure in SRHR programming, while providing context regarding investment and research, (2) to introduce and situate an upcoming systematic review and meta-analysis to quantify whether and to what extent incorporating sexual pleasure into SRHR interventions can improve health outcomes, and (3) to examine the key practical, methodological, and theoretical challenges in carrying out such a review. We undertook a literature review and analysis of conference abstract publications to highlight the 'pleasure gap' in evidence in sexual and reproductive health and rights programming and research. We detailed the scope, search strategy and challenges for our subsequent systematic review. This paper and the subsequent review highlights the need to equip the SRHR and HIV fields to better meet the needs of communities by considering key reasons people have sex, and understand the challenges of undertaking a review of this nature. We conclude that this a focus on pleasure is particularly pertinent in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals and the ratification of the declaration on sexual pleasure at the 2021 World Congress of the World Association for Sexual Health.
PubMed: 38595783
DOI: 10.1080/19317611.2021.1965690 -
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 -
Sleep Medicine Mar 2023Cancer survivors have elevated rates of insomnia and depression. Insomnia increases risk for depression onset, and the Integrated Sleep and Reward (ISR) Model suggests...
OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND
Cancer survivors have elevated rates of insomnia and depression. Insomnia increases risk for depression onset, and the Integrated Sleep and Reward (ISR) Model suggests that impairments in reward responding (e.g., ability to anticipate and/or experience pleasure) plays a central role in this relationship. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is efficacious for treating chronic insomnia and reducing depression in cancer survivor populations. The effects of CBT-I on anticipatory and consummatory pleasure are theoretically and clinically meaningful, yet remain unexamined.
PATIENTS/METHODS
This secondary analysis of a pilot RCT (N = 40 cancer survivors with insomnia) explicated changes in anticipatory and consummatory pleasure and depression symptoms following a 4-session, synchronous, virtual CBT-I program versus enhanced usual care (referral to a behavioral sleep medicine clinic + sleep hygiene handout). Linear mixed models examined changes in anticipatory and consummatory pleasure and depression symptoms as predictors of changes in insomnia severity from baseline to post-intervention and 1-month follow-up.
RESULTS
CBT-I buffered against deterioration in anticipatory pleasure but not consummatory pleasure or depression symptoms. Across conditions, increased anticipatory pleasure was associated with insomnia reduction through 1-month follow-up, even after adjusting for changes in depression symptoms.
CONCLUSION
CBT-I may improve reward processing deficits in cancer survivors with insomnia. Findings provide support for the ISR Model and implicate pleasure as an important target for insomnia and depression.
Topics: Humans; Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders; Cancer Survivors; Depression; Pleasure; Treatment Outcome; Neoplasms
PubMed: 36739822
DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2023.01.011 -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Mar 2024When listening to music, we naturally move our bodies rhythmically to the beat, which can be pleasurable and difficult to resist. This pleasurable sensation of wanting... (Review)
Review
When listening to music, we naturally move our bodies rhythmically to the beat, which can be pleasurable and difficult to resist. This pleasurable sensation of wanting to move the body to music has been called "groove." Following pioneering humanities research, psychological and neuroscientific studies have provided insights on associated musical features, behavioral responses, phenomenological aspects, and brain structural and functional correlates of the groove experience. Groove research has advanced the field of music science and more generally informed our understanding of bidirectional links between perception and action, and the role of the motor system in prediction. Activity in motor and reward-related brain networks during music listening is associated with the groove experience, and this neural activity is linked to temporal prediction and learning. This article reviews research on groove as a psychological phenomenon with neurophysiological correlates that link musical rhythm perception, sensorimotor prediction, and reward processing. Promising future research directions range from elucidating specific neural mechanisms to exploring clinical applications and socio-cultural implications of groove.
Topics: Humans; Music; Brain; Sensation; Auditory Perception
PubMed: 38141692
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105522 -
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