Abstract
The current dictionary definition for alliesthesia is the hedonic modification of a sensation. The stimuli used to establish this initial definition was skin temperature and sweet tastes. However, accrued experimental evidence shows that changes in hedonicity place also in sensations, and then in other cognitive processes, mental experiences, and in all decision making. These accumulated data render obsolete the previous definition. We propose the following new one: Alliesthesia refers to a modified outcome of the hedonic dimension of any mental process, from sensation to mental performance, and decision making leading to physiological comfort and happiness. Positive alliesthesia is the rise in pleasure or joy or a decrease in displeasure or pain, while negative alliesthesia is the opposite.
Highlights
The word alliesthesia was coined in 1971 [1] to describe a change in hedonicity from skin temperature and sweet taste sensations, and is presently defined as: A subjective response to an external stimulus that reflects the internal “homeostasis”
Any stimulus capable of Ameliorating the internal homeostasis will be perceived as pleasant; any stimulus that threatens or alters the internal homeostasis would be perceived as unpleasant or painful [2]
The sight of young nubile faces is pleasurable [37].In the Coolidge effect, alliesthesia both negative and positive, can be found from visual and auditory sensations [38].These hedonic experiences from vision and hearing can be culturally learned, when these sensations are hedonically indifferent on first exposure, through a chain of mental associations with other pleasures
Summary
The word alliesthesia was coined in 1971 [1] to describe a change in hedonicity from skin temperature and sweet taste sensations, and is presently defined as: A subjective response to an external stimulus that reflects the internal “homeostasis”. Pleasant sensations will lead an individual to seek beneficial behaviors, and unpleasant or painful sensations to avoid noxious or harmful behaviors. This definition was meant to be specific to humans. Subjects stop eating a certain food and describe it as is less palatable This definition makes sensory-specific satiety a perfect synonym of negative alliesthesia in the case of sensations controlling food intake. Learned taste aversion [4], is the negative hedonicity acquired by a new food when ingestion of that food is followed by illness. As joy is only a transient experience of pleasure, the above definition entails that joy is positive alliesthesia
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