Neural response to reward as a potential pathway from inflammation to anhedonia in adolescents at risk for depression.

This study investigates married Palestinian women's experiences of sexual rights, autonomy, and pleasure, emphasizing the interplay of religion, culture, and marital communication. Using a qualitative phenomenological design, 20 women from urban, rural, and refugee camp settings were interviewed. Findings reveal that women perceive sexual rights and pleasure in Islam as mutually reciprocal, yet cultural norms and social expectations often constrain the enactment of sexual autonomy and enjoyment. Religious guidance serves as both empowerment and a site of negotiation, helping women interpret their rights and navigate tension with local customs. Emotional wellbeing, trust, privacy, and knowledge of sexual rights emerged as critical enablers of sexual decision-making and pleasurable experiences. The study underscores the importance of culturally and religiously sensitive education, counseling, and marital support to foster sexual autonomy and pleasure, contributing to relational equity and wellbeing in Palestinian marital contexts.

Meditative experience has long been associated with conceptual attenuation, reduced reactivity to phenomena, increased present moment perception, and more pleasant experience. However, the computational mechanisms underlying such meditative deconstruction are not well understood, with no formal computational models available to explicate how deconstruction alters perception and action during meditation. Using the active inference framework, I demonstrate that the phenomenology of deconstruction-in terms of conceptual attenuation, reduced reactivity, and shorter temporal scale perception-naturally emerges from the dynamics of hierarchical inference when the deconstructive notion of letting go is cast as a reduction in precision of beliefs about hidden states at a specific level of the generative model. I present a formal hierarchical three-level generative model and simulate deconstruction as an intervention in a facial recognition task, where the agent selects a letting-go policy when perceived affective valence becomes excessively negative. The results demonstrate that the capacity to deconstruct permits agents to self-regulate experienced affect via letting go. The model offers a novel perspective within the paradigm of computational phenomenology on conceptual attenuation, equanimity, stillness, and affect during meditative deconstruction.

ABSTRACT Purpose A running boom has emerged in recent years as more individuals recognize the health and well-being benefits of running. However, the mechanisms underlying the relationship between leisure-time running and subjective well-being (SWB) remain unclear. This study examines how running behaviors are associated with life satisfaction through distinct psychological mechanisms. Methodology Data were collected from participants in a running event (N = 404). Structural equation modeling with bootstrapping was employed to test the mediating role of multiple psychological mechanisms. Findings Minutes per week spent running had significant indirect effects on life satisfaction through positive emotion, relationships, and accomplishment. Running club membership also had a significant indirect effect on life satisfaction through positive emotion and relationships. Practical implications The findings help to better understand the psychological underpinnings of the contemporary running boom and suggest that running programs, applications, and events should emphasize pleasurable experiences, social connections, and goal achievement to enhance participants’ life satisfaction. Research contribution This study advances leisure and well-being research by identifying the relative importance of distinct psychological mechanisms linking leisure-time running and life satisfaction. Originality This study integrated context-specific PERMA and leisure involvement in a single analytical model.

Objective The study investigated the association between emotional responses to environmental sounds and various well-being indicators. Design Participants rated 120 environmental sounds on valence and arousal and completed questionnaires assessing affect in daily life, emotional communication in hearing, pleasantness of everyday listening, and mental well-being. Study sample Forty hearing aid (HA) users and 90 individuals with self-reported normal hearing (NH) were recruited. The NH group was divided into two subgroups based on their hearing difficulties score on the Hearing-Related Lifestyle Questionnaire: 36 with no-to-minimal hearing difficulties (“NH no-difficulty” group) and 54 with some hearing difficulties (“NH some-difficulty” group). Results NH some-difficulty group reported greater challenges in emotional communication, reduced pleasantness of everyday listening, and poorer mental well-being compared to the NH no-difficulty group. HA users showed greater difficulties in emotional communication and lower listening enjoyment than both NH groups. Higher sensitivity to both positive and negative emotional sounds was linked to greater emotional communication difficulties. A more positive perception of typically negative sounds was associated with a more pleasant experience in everyday listening situations and better mental well-being. Conclusions Targeting how individuals interpret and manage emotional reactions to sound may help improve well-being outcomes, particularly for individuals with hearing difficulties.

ABSTRACTReward processing comprises reward sensitivity, motivation, and pleasure experience, but how these components jointly relate to schizotypal traits and psychosocial stress in young adult samples remains unclear. Using network analysis in a large Chinese young adult sample (N = 6814), we examined multivariate associations among reward sensitivity (BAS), schizotypal traits (MSS), reward motivation (MAP‐SR), pleasure experience (TEPS), and psychosocial stress (ERI). The results indicated that BAS‐Fun seeking showed the highest strength centrality and expected influence. MSS‐Disorganized schizotypal traits served as a bridge node between reward sensitivity and reward motivation and pleasure experience. Subsequent mediation analysis also supported these findings. Network comparison tests indicated no difference in global strength between the high‐ and low‐psychosocial‐stress groups, but a significant difference in overall network structure. These findings highlight impulsive Fun seeking and disorganized schizotypal traits as potentially informative targets for mechanistic and intervention‐oriented research across the psychosis continuum in young adult cohorts.

The relationship between childhood trauma, inhibitory dysfunction, and emotion processing: Exploring differences across social anhedonia levels.

ABSTRACT Consent is a critical component of healthy and pleasurable sexual experiences. Individual-level (e.g. gender) and situational-level (e.g. type of sexual behavior, relationship to partner) factors have been associated with sexual consent communication. However, few studies have examined a broad range of personal and situational characteristics within the same models, despite these being potentially important influences on sexual behavior during college. The current study extended prior work by examining multiple correlates of consent communication during individuals’ most recent sexual encounter. College students from a predominately White university in the Midwest (N = 238; 58% women; 10.1% lesbian, gay, or bisexual [LGBTQ+]) completed an online cross-sectional survey assessing demographics, types of sexual behavior engaged in, relationship to last sexual partner, alcohol use, and use of different consent cues. A series of ordinal logistic regressions examined associations between individual and situational factors and five consent communication cues: indirect verbal, indirect nonverbal, direct verbal, direct nonverbal, and passive. LGBTQ+ identity and Greek life affiliation emerged as important individual correlates of more direct forms of sexual consent communication, while sex act and relationship to partner were important situational correlates. Receipt of oral sex was unexpectedly associated with both direct verbal and passive consent, while sexual behavior with a friend was associated with less passive consent. These findings highlight ways that consent education programming may be dismantling traditional sexual scripts for some subgroups of students. Future research should explore students’ motivations for using specific communication tactics and how partners interpret these cues.

The fading affect bias (FAB) is the faster fading of unpleasant than pleasant affect, and this effect is positively and negatively related to healthy/adaptive and unhealthy/non-adaptive outcomes, respectively. Research has argued that the FAB makes people happy and it prompts them to seek out pleasant experiences. Although Pillersdorf and Scoboria found a negative relation between the FAB and marijuana consumption, they only examined non-marijuana events. This investigation was limited because the relation between the FAB and marijuana consumption may be absent or positive for marijuana events. The current study examined the relation of the FAB to marijuana consumption measures across marijuana and non-marijuana events. The study was conducted both in person (Experiment 1; n = 328) and online (Experiment 2; n = 232). Analyses included ANOVAs to examine fading affect across initial event affect and event type, and Process Model 1 was used to evaluate the fading affect bias across initial event affect in 2-way interactions with continuous variables. Process Model 3 was used to investigate fading affect across initial event affect and event type in 3-way interactions with continuous variables. Both experiments showed a robust FAB that was positively related to adaptive variables and negatively related to non-adaptive variables, and it was positively related to marijuana consumption/reactivity. In addition, the positive relations between FAB and marijuana consumption (hours) and reactivity (highness) measures in Experiment 1 and a marijuana reactivity measure (highness) in Experiment 2 were only found for marijuana events. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

Background:Motivational deficits are a core clinical feature across mood and psychotic disorders, although distinct mechanisms may contribute to similar symptom presentations. We aimed to understand diagnostic groups differences in daily reports of consummatory and anticipatory pleasure, physical and mental effort exertion, and goal-directed behaviors. Additionally, we explored how subjective value computation during decision-making in lab settings mapped onto real-world motivated behaviors.Study Design:Participants from five diagnostic groups—healthy control (N=81), schizophrenia-spectrum disorder (N=56), current major depression (N=58), remitted major depression (N=48), and bipolar I disorder (N=53)—completed ecological momentary assessment measures for two weeks. Additionally, we used a person-centered modeling approach to examine subjective value representation during two laboratory-based effort-cost decision-making paradigms. We examined the association between decision-making, subjective pleasure and effort ratings, and motivated behaviors.Study Results:We observed lower consummatory and anticipatory pleasure ratings in current major depression, which was mediated by self-reported motivational impairments. Individuals with psychosis or bipolar disorder were less likely to engage in goal-directed behaviors, and all patient groups reported increased subjective effort sensitivity in daily living. Moreover, systematic subjective value representation during effort-cost decision-making was associated with, yet did not fully account for, differences in goal-directed behaviors across disorders.Conclusions:These findings point toward both common features and heterogeneities in motivated behaviors, hedonic experiences, and effort sensitivity across diagnostic boundaries. Meanwhile, individual differences in effort-cost decision-making only partially contributed to real-world motivational deficits, suggesting a need for future research to parse out transdiagnostic affective and cognitive mechanisms underlying motivational deficits.

Purpose This study aims to systematically review empirical research on how artificial intelligence (AI) shapes customers’ emotional experiences in hospitality and tourism. It integrates psychological, technological and social perspectives to address disjointed insights and develop a holistic understanding of AI-mediated emotions. Design/methodology/approach Following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses protocol, this review analyzes 159 empirical studies on emotional responses to AI in hospitality and tourism. It examines the theoretical frameworks, measurement methods and contextual factors used to explain customer emotions in AI interactions. Findings Customers’ emotional experiences with AI arise from the interplay among interface design, individual traits and service context. The literature remains constrained by methodological uniformity, limited field-based data and insufficient attention to cultural and contextual variation. Theoretical perspectives are often applied in isolation, underscoring the need for integrative models that link cognition, AI features and social interaction. Practical implications Designing emotionally intelligent AI requires enhancing user control, ensuring transparency and adapting to cultural and situational cues to strengthen trust. Social implications Emotionally responsive AI can enhance customer hedonic well-being by creating more pleasurable service experiences that generate positive emotional value. Originality/value This paper provides an interdisciplinary integration bringing together theoretical and empirical insights on customer emotions in AI-mediated services. It organizes findings into a conceptual model and introduces a fuzzy emotion approach capturing the fluid, context-sensitive nature of emotion. By identifying research gaps, it offers a roadmap for future theoretical advancement and the development of emotionally responsive AI systems.

Purpose This study explores the external and inherent drivers which motivate mobile banking users to change from menu-based navigation to AI-powered voice and text command chatbots for financial transactions. Design/methodology/approach The research employs partial least squares structural equation modelling, complemented by Importance–Performance Map Analysis and Necessary Condition Analysis as the main analyses to examine survey data from 230 mobile banking users across the Gulf Cooperation Council region. Findings The model employed explains 77.8% of the variance in intentions to change to AI-based Chatbots. It was found that the most powerful motivators were hedonic motivation, habit formation and trust. Hedonic motivation and habit directly affected intentions to change and also influenced ideas about the potential effects of performance and effort expectancies. Expectation of improved performance was an underlying assumption, but could not be used to anticipate changed behaviours, while the prospects of improved workload and security were present, but were not primary determinants, suggesting their role as bottlenecks in adoption. Findings also identified a connection between banking security, hedonic motivation, and habit, and indicated that the perceived banking security reinforced the association between hedonic motivation and habit, thereby increasing the possibility of long-term adoption. Together, the findings clarify that all factors are key and necessary in enabling more user preferences from menu-based mobile banking interfaces to voice and text-enabled AI Chatbots in performing banking chores. Practical implications The results provide useful guidelines for banks and financial institutions who want to motivate customers to adopt AI-based Chatbots. The findings of the study show that banks’ actions cannot only focus on performance potential, but also primacy must be given to ensuring trust, providing a pleasurable experience and cultivating habit formation, assuring that the latter two aspects are underpinned by a commitment to security. By fostering digital transformation in banking, these strategies align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 8. Originality/value This study both builds on and addresses gaps in the existing scholarship by considering the important, but still undeveloped topic of why users decide to change their digital banking behaviours to the use of AI Chatbots. Previous studies have tended to focus on intrinsic factors which motivate this change; this research evaluates how these inherent factors mediate the impact of external factors on intentions to make the change to AI Chatbots. Furthermore, this research draws attention to the role of trust and banking security in this decision-making process. This is an area which is not fully addressed in the existing literature. Methodologically, the study extends UTAUT2 by integrating necessity logic and importance–performance perspectives. It is among the first to employ advanced Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling analyses in this setting, thereby contributing novel theoretical and practical insights into mobile banking transformation.

This study investigates the experiences of pleasure and suffering among workers at Federal Educational Institutions in Northeast Brazil through documentary review of scientific literature. An integrative review methodology was employed with systematic searches across academic databases, including institutional repositories, scientific journals, and digital libraries, covering the period from 2010 to 2017. Fourteen studies were selected and analyzed, addressing different professional categories: tenured faculty, substitute teachers, technical-administrative staff in education, and outsourced workers. The analysis revealed that suffering related to exhaustion represents the most frequent category (33 occurrences), followed by problems in work organization (28 occurrences) and inadequate working conditions (26 occurrences). Technical-administrative staff in education showed the highest concentration of suffering reports, particularly related to working conditions and socioprofessional relationships. Workplace pleasure manifested primarily through professional fulfillment, although with significantly lower frequency than suffering experiences. The results indicate that organizational transformations, work intensification, and productivity pressures in federal educational institutions have generated significant negative impacts on workers' mental health and well-being, highlighting the need for institutional policies aimed at promoting occupational health.

Anhedonia, a diminished response to pleasurable stimuli extensively studied in mental disorders and chronic pain, has been reported as prevalent among patients with deep endometriosis. Anhedonia is considered a multifaceted transdiagnostic construct involving cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes related to the anticipation and experience of pleasure. In this study, we aim to expand on previous findings by exploring the presence of anhedonia in patients with ultrasound diagnosed (UD) endometriosis compared to a control group, and by examining how its anticipatory and consummatory components contribute to the loss of pleasure in this condition. A total of 216 patients with UD endometriosis and 229 controls were recruited from a hospital gynecological service. Sociodemographic and clinical information was collected, and participants completed an online survey assessing anhedonia using a gold-standard measure, the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS). To assess anticipatory and consummatory components, the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) was administered, along with additional psychological measures of mood and anxiety. A moderated multiple regression model was performed to predict anhedonia scores based on TEPS subscales and diagnosis status. An additional model including anxiety, depression and dysmenorrhea was also conducted. Analyses were conducted using R version 4.4.3 and RStudio, with p-values set at < 0.05. Clinically pathological anhedonia was more prevalent in patients with UD endometriosis than in controls (31% vs. 15%, p < .001). UD endometriosis participants also reported greater menstrual pain, more chronic pain comorbidities, higher anxiety, and increased use of mental health services and hormonal treatments (all p < .05). In moderated regression analyses, UD endometriosis diagnosis, lower anticipatory pleasure, and lower consummatory pleasure significantly predicted anhedonia (p < .05), while depression was not predictive. A significant diagnosis × anticipatory pleasure interaction (p < .001) indicated stronger impairment among patients with UD endometriosis. This effect remained after adjusting for relevant covariates (anxiety, depression and dysmenorrhea). Depression was not predictive of anhedonia levels. Our findings confirm that patients with UD endometriosis consistently show deficits in deriving pleasure from everyday life experiences independently from depressive symptoms and directly influenced by anxiety and marginally dysmenorrhea. Notably, a specific impairment in anticipatory pleasure suggests a disruption in cognitive-affective processing associated with this chronic inflammatory condition. These results support the relevance for multidisciplinary care in UD endometriosis and highlight the transdisciplinary value of assessing anhedonia. Interventions targeting cognitive and affective processes may be essential for restoring health and improving quality of life in this patient population.

This study is part of the FAIST research project—Agile, Intelligent, Sustainable and Technological Factory, coordinated by the Footwear Technology Centre of Portugal (CTCP), which aims to develop an innovative production process through the creation of a sustainable footwear model fully adapted to the user’s foot anatomy and personalized according to individual aesthetic preferences. Within this context, the need emerged to design an online platform with an interface capable of effectively addressing user needs throughout all stages of the personalization process, from the foot scanning to the aesthetic personalization of the model, while ensuring an efficient, intuitive, and pleasant navigation experience. Thus, this work aims to demonstrate how the design process of a footwear personalization platform, across its different phases, can contribute to the revitalization of the Portuguese footwear industry, as well as to describe its effectiveness, with the goal of being potentially adapted and implemented in similar contexts. The adopted methodology was based on the principles of Design Thinking, an approach centered on user needs. The development of the platform involved the creation of personas, the definition of the information architecture, the development of wireframes and workflows, and the execution of usability tests using the System Usability Scale (SUS). The results demonstrate a high success rate, validating the proposed solution with users and confirming the suitability of the applied methodologies.

Ecological Momentary Assessments of Pain and Pleasure Expectations and Experiences in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain

With the evolution of technology, specialized sensors and fast-response electronic systems have paved the way for autonomous cars. The various challenges faced by a driver in a real-world environment require perfect configuration of vehicle safety features and secure data transmission between vehicle components. This paper presents the development of a remote-controlled and semiautonomous vehicle from both hardware and software perspectives. The hardware implementation consists of a custom-designed Printed Circuit Board (PCB) that integrates an Arduino Nano development board and an ESP32-CAM board alongside additional modules. On the software side, architecture is inspired by AUTomotive Open System Architecture (AUTOSAR) principles, ensuring modularity and scalability. Communication between the Arduino Nano and ESP32- CAM is secured using a simplified Data Encryption Standard (DES) encryption algorithm, preventing unauthorized access. The ESP32-CAM hosts a web server that allows remote control of the vehicle, while an autonomous lateral parking feature is implemented using six ultrasonic sensors. This project demonstrates a secure and efficient approach to integrating remote control and autonomous functionalities in embedded automotive systems. By enabling the car to automatically perform driving actions or be controlled by the driver, both passionate drivers and relaxed passengers can enjoy a pleasant experience.

Research has explored how musical timing, tempo, and complexity influence experiences of groove in listeners. Musical complexity and tempo have also been associated with distortions in time perception, likely due to their demand on attentional resources within working memory. Individual factors such as arousal or age typically shape time perception in addition. The present study aimed at investigating how both groove and time perception are modulated by varying levels of complexity and tempo. Using short percussion patterns rooted in the funk tradition and performed by a professional drummer, a pilot study tested three levels of complexity – operationalized as degrees of syncopation – at two tempi (110 and 130 BPM). In the main study, a total of 192 participants rated the stimuli with the Experience of Groove Questionnaire (EGQ), and judged both the duration and subjective passage of time (PoT) during listening. Results indicate that low and medium complexity versions were experienced higher in the groove dimensions of Urge to Move and Pleasure, compared with the highly complex music. Medium complexity caused time to pass more quickly compared with the low or high complexity versions. Higher tempo resulted in time passing more quickly, as well as in higher groove ratings in terms of Urge to Move. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that PoT and participants’ arousal predicted Urge to Move, and PoT also predicted the Pleasure dimension of groove. No significant effects were observed for age, musical training, or duration estimation. Taken together, this study demonstrates that only high levels of rhythmic complexity diminish groove experiences, contrasting with previous research proposing an inverted U-shaped relationship. Given that the perception of time often accelerates during pleasurable experiences, the current results provide additional support for the link between groove and affective enjoyment.

High purchase intention has been shown to influence guests' decision to stay at a hotel significantly. This study analyses the influence of store atmosphere on the decision to stay, with guest purchase intention as a mediating variable. This study used a quantitative approach, involving 172 respondents who were guests of the Borneo Hotel in Pontianak. The sample was selected through purposive sampling, with the criteria that respondents be guests who had stayed at least 1 night, be aged 18 or older, and be willing to participate voluntarily in the research process. In addition, data analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) techniques using AMOS software version 23 to achieve more precise and reliable research results. The results show that store atmosphere significantly influences guests' decision to stay. A hotel atmosphere that is perceived as attractive and comfortable, and that provides a pleasant experience, is an essential factor in increasing guest interest. Furthermore, purchase intention also plays a vital role in strengthening guests' tendency to stay. This study also shows that purchase intention acts as a mediating factor, increasing the relationship between store atmosphere and the decision to stay. Overall, this study confirms that the quality of a store's ambience not only directly influences the decision to stay, but the effect is even more pronounced when guests have high purchase intentions. These findings have important implications for hotels, encouraging them to continually improve the quality of their physical environments and ambience to attract guests and encourage them to stay.

Abstract This study qualitatively examined how young adults describe pleasurable experiences within the predefined domains of the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale (DARS; non-social hobbies, social interaction, food/drink, and sensory experiences) and in an additional open-ended question. Responses from 300 participants (aged 18–30) were coded to explore domain content, overlaps, and patterns. Across domains, pleasure was most often derived from ordinary, embodied, and relational activities such as socialising, engaging with music or nature, and enjoying food. The sensory domain showed the greatest conceptual overlap with others, suggesting that sensory pleasure represents a cross-cutting experiential quality rather than a distinct category. Comparison with open responses revealed additional themes (e.g., rest, reflection, cognitive rewards) not captured by the DARS. Findings support the ecological validity of the DARS while highlighting potential refinements, particularly regarding sensory and restorative experiences, and underscore the value of combining structured and open-ended approaches to studying anhedonia.