The idea that pain may serve to produce pleasurable states has been noted by theorists and, more recently, substantiated by empirical findings. We explored the possibility that, beyond producing positive hedonic states, the offset of pain may serve to enhance the capacity for gustatory pleasure. Across three studies we examined whether pain offset may enhance responsiveness to taste. In Study 1...

Several theorists have proposed that distinctions are needed between different positive emotional states, and that these discriminations may be particularly useful in the domain of vocal signals (Ekman, 1992b, Cognition and Emotion, 6, 169–200; Scherer, 1986, Psychological Bulletin, 99, 143–165). We report an investigation into the hypothesis that positive basic emotions have distinct vocal exp...

Research in motivation and emotion has been increasingly influenced by the perspective that processes underpinning the motivated approach of rewarding goals are distinct from those underpinning enjoyment during reward consummation. This distinction recently inspired the construction of the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS), a self-report measure that distinguishes trait anticipatory ...

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Byzantium China, garden as a site of pleasure was an important literary theme among literati. Although had long been associated with gardens prior to this period, its simultaneous resurgence both cultures specifically linked new ways engaging classical tradition. This paper explores nature significance discourse imagination these two culturally disti...

This study examined anticipatory and consummatory pleasure in schizophrenia patients with and without negative symptoms. Negative symptom patients experienced less anticipatory pleasure than non-negative symptom patients; only one facet of consummatory pleasure was unaffected in negative schizophrenia. Greater pleasure deficits were correlated with more severe positive and negative symptoms.

Background Impairments in emotional experience and expression have been observed in patients with schizophrenia. However, most previous studies have been limited to either emotional experience (especially anhedonia) or expression. Few studies have examined both the experience and expression of emotion in schizophrenia patients at the same time. Aims The present study aimed to examine pleasure...

Pleasure is mediated by well-developed mesocorticolimbic circuitry and serves adaptive functions. In affective disorders, anhedonia (lack of pleasure) or dysphoria (negative affect) can result from breakdowns of that hedonic system. Human neuroimaging studies indicate that surprisingly similar circuitry is activated by quite diverse pleasures, suggesting a common neural currency shared by all. ...

Objective: Various sources of evidence suggest that men and women differ in their experience sexual pleasure. Such gender differences have been attributed to men’s higher innate sex drive, supported by evolutionary psychology perspectives reproductive strategies.Method: This paper presents biopsychosocial for similarities the capacity pleasure, substantial opportunities pleasure.Results: We con...

money we had." The distinctive identity and qualities of the individual initiating the message evoke a mental image with a pattern of association that arouses corresponding expectation. In like manner, the growth of biographical writings to a recognised literary species in recent decades reflects the public's appetite for personal record. The brief snatches I present here reflect but the merest...

The test of a good book, said Lord Snow in a recent television programme, was whether you could remember its content a year later. I am an insatiable reader with a memory like a sieve, so that only the flavour remains-and perhaps a quotation or two in my diary. When I was a boy I used to write precis, but adult laziness has forced me to keep lists only. Why then do I read? It is an obsession, m...