Sense Of Pleasure Research Articles

The Impact of Pleasure and Pain on Frequent Substance Use During Receptive Anal Intercourse

ABSTRACT Sexualized drug use (SDU) describes use of any psychoactive substance before or during planned sexual activity to facilitate, intensify, or prolong intercourse. The impact of pain, pleasure, and other mediators on SDU is not well characterized. This study aimed to distinguish the motivations behind different classes and frequencies of substance use during receptive anal intercourse (RAI). Data were from an internet-based survey conducted between July 2022-January 2023. We measured the frequency of SDU for five substances: poppers, alcohol, marijuana, methamphetamine, and nicotine. Satisfaction with pleasurable sensations during RAI and any type of pain bother during RAI were assessed on a 5-point scale. Multivariable logistic regression was performed for 1,119 respondents. Our results showed a strong association between bothersome pain during RAI and frequent alcohol (aOR 2.1), marijuana (aOR 2.4), nicotine (aOR 3.1), and meth (aOR 5.9) use. None of the five substance classes studied was correlated with dissatisfaction with pleasure during RAI. Frequent popper use was associated with increasing lifetime RAI experience and number of sexual partners. The mechanism behind SDU during RAI is substance-specific and multifactorial. Bothersome pain during RAI is highly associated with frequent SDU. Inquiring about pain during RAI may offer avenues for intervention.

The expectations humans have of a pleasurable sensation asymmetrically shape neuronal responses and subjective experiences to hot sauce.

Expectations shape our perception, profoundly influencing how we interpret the world. Positive expectations about sensory stimuli can alleviate distress and reduce pain (e.g., placebo effect), while negative expectations may heighten anxiety and exacerbate pain (e.g., nocebo effect). To investigate the impact of the (an)hedonic aspect of expectations on subjective experiences, we measured neurobehavioral responses to the taste of hot sauce among participants with heterogeneous taste preferences. By identifying participants who "liked" versus those who strongly "disliked" spicy flavors and by providing contextual cues about the spiciness of the sauce to be tasted, we dissociated the effects of positive and negative expectations from sensory stimuli (i.e., visual and gustatory stimuli), which were the same across all participants. Our results indicate that positive expectations lead to modulations in the intensity of subjective experience. These modulations were accompanied by increased activity in brain regions previously linked to information integration and the placebo effect, including the anterior insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, as well as a predefined "pleasure signature." In contrast, negative expectations decreased hedonic experience and increased neural activity in the previously validated "Neurological Pain Signature" network. These findings demonstrate that hedonic aspects of one's expectations asymmetrically shape how the brain processes sensory input and associated behavioral reports of one's subjective experiences of intensity, pleasure, and pain. Our results suggest a dissociable impact of hedonic information: positive expectations facilitate higher-level information integration and reward processing, while negative expectations prime lower-level nociceptive and affective processes. This study demonstrates the powerful role of hedonic expectations in shaping subjective reality and suggests potential avenues for consumer and therapeutic interventions targeting expectation-driven neural processes.

Using educational games in preparing children for school

The didactic game has become an essential component in the early education process, representing an interactive and effective method for preparing children for school. A game is not only an enjoyable and fun activity for children, but also a powerful means by which they can develop the skills and knowledge needed to be successful in school and in life. Through playing, children can explore their curiosity, make independent discoveries, and actively learn without feeling pressured or obligated. This approach to learning helps children develop a sense of pleasure and satisfaction associated with learning, which can help maintain motivation and interest in school in the future. This article explores the crucial role that didactic games play in developing children’s cognitive, social and emotional skills, preparing them for academic success and integration into the school environment. Through the diversity of didactic games, children are exposed to pleasant and stimulating educational experiences that encourage them to explore, learn and develop in a holistic way.

Loss, Lament, and Survival in the Poetry of C. P. Cavafy

Abstract: The question of loss and its relation to aesthetic form emerges in poems by C. P. Cavafy that deal specifically with the unacknowledged losses suffered by lives on the sexual margins, for whom the challenge of survival takes shape under punitive social forces. Finding in Greek literary tradition the aesthetic potential to manage what is unmanageable about loss under the historical conditions of modernity, Cavafy has recourse to the poetry of lament to reimagine the work of living with enduring loss. Cavafy's revisions to the poetry of lament facilitate the process of grieving for same-sex desiring subjects, especially when one does not know precisely what or how much has been lost. A number of these poems articulate new forms of pleasure that become possible in the aftermath of loss, thus proposing sensual pleasure as a mode of survival.

Preparing to play: a thematic analysis of bottom training in gay men’s fist-play

Anal fisting amongst gay men has been characterised as a risky form of sexual play, particularly for the bottoming (receptive) playmate. This view may be oversimplistic and fail to recognise how fist-bottoms ready themselves for fist-play through preparatory journeys of bottom training. This study explored how gay men who bottom in fist-play understand bottom training and how this understanding informs their personal sense of pleasure, risk, and safety. Unstructured individual interviews were conducted with 8 gay men who play as fist-bottoms. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted on the data, from which four main themes were developed: (1) training the body to play; (2) training for headspace; (3) training to understand pleasure; and (4) training by rules. Taken together, the findings highlight how fist-bottoms understand their bottom training as both a formative and transformative process that shapes their corporeal, psychological, erotic, and subcultural knowledge and skills to navigate play. Through bottom training, fist-bottoms explore and attune their understanding of what is safe and pleasurable, as well as riskier play.

Fabrication of copper tungstate nanoparticles on screen printed carbon electrode: A disposable strip for the electrochemical detection of the food additive tertiary Butylhydroquinone

Food additives enhance sensory pleasure and improve marketability in food product formulations, yet their potential health risks are highly consequential. Tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), in this regard, has a controversial reputation owing to its neurotoxic effects, which include convulsions and other chronic issues. This situation underscores the need for an advanced electrochemical sensing platform. The current study advocates the utilization of copper tungstate nanoparticles to enhance the sensitivity, selectivity, and efficiency in TBHQ detection, thus addressing the challenges posed by the excessive use of additives and safeguarding the integrity of the food supply chain. Hydrothermally synthesized CuWO4 nanoparticles exhibited superior physicochemical and morphological characteristics, bringing about wide linear response ranges (0.01 to 789 μM), high selectivity, excellent anti-interference capabilities, and a low detection limit of 0.9 nM (S/N = 3). The CuWO4 modified screen printed carbon electrode (SPCE) presents promising recovery ranges in food samples, facilitating real-time monitoring and streamlining the quality assessment of food additives.

What are the reasons for injected methadone use? A qualitative study of people who use drugs parenterally in Barcelona.

Oral methadone maintenance is a widely adopted and effective treatment for heroin and other opioid dependencies. However, injectable methadone usage may pose greater risks than heroin itself. Despite decades of oral methadone treatment in Spain, there is limited understanding of the motivations for parenteral consumption. This study aimed to examine the reasons for methadone injection, delineate its specific advantages and disadvantages compared with those of heroin use, and assess the benefits and drawbacks of supervised methadone injection within a harm reduction service from the perspective of people who inject drugs. A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted in 11 patients at a safe injection facility in Barcelona. Semistructured interviews revealed that the reasons for injecting methadone were its provision of a euphoric rush, the pleasurable sensation of needle insertion, and the avoidance of gastrointestinal discomfort associated with oral methadone use. The main attraction of methadone injection was its accessibility as a legal and fully state-funded treatment option in Spain, coupled with its effectiveness in relieving withdrawal symptoms. However, notable disadvantages included the risks inherent in injection. The benefits of supervised consumption rooms were its provision of immediate medical assistance in overdose situations, ease of access, and physical safety. Drawbacks included waiting times, limited opening hours, neighborhood stigmatization, and the distance people who inject methadone had to travel when obtaining methadone from the illicit market. Based on these findings, we make several recommendations aimed at reducing the harm associated with methadone injection and emphasize the need for comprehensive harm reduction strategies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

An Affect “That Shudders Me”: An Approach to Husserl’s Phenomenology of Joy

In the texts collected in the second volume of the Studien zur Struktur des Bewusstseins, Husserl extensively discusses experiences of joy (Freude). By considering Husserl’s examples related to joy not as mere illustrations, but as a guiding thread for the identification of experiential structures, this article shows how these examples are not only significant for the general theory of intentionality of affective and emotional non-objectifying acts, but also provide valuable insights into the specific phenomenon of joy itself. Specifically, the article demonstrates how the distinction between joy, sensory pleasure, and liking provides insights into the intentional structure of joy as a responsive affect. On the basis of these distinctions, the article raises the normative question about the appropriateness of affective and emotional responses. It argues that the appropriateness of joy should be assessed from two perspectives: in relation to the value that justifies an affective response and in relation to a personal motivational nexus. From the former perspective, joy can be normatively assessed. However, when only considering the latter perspective, joy cannot be assessed according to objective normative standards. Finally, building on these findings, the article explores how the phenomenology of joy and motivation may be connected to the specific experience of depth and discusses the role of joy for a phenomenological investigation of the personal self.

Development of dark chocolate with inulin and sweetened with stevia extract obtained by pressurized hot water

Because of its taste, texture, and aroma, chocolate is consumed as a way to generate pleasant sensations. Due to its high caloric density, moderate consumption is recommended. Seeking to offer the benefits of this product to a more selective public, the aim of this research was to determine the chemical composition and sensory properties of a sugar-free dark chocolate added with inulin and sweetened with stevia extract obtained by pressurized hot water, which was compared with a commercial dark chocolate and accompanied by a sensory analysis of the samples. A completely randomized statistical experimental design was used to compare the properties of the alternative and commercial chocolates. The treatments were carried out in triplicate and the results obtained were analyzed by descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance with 95 % confidence level. The results showed that the treatment of stevia leaves with hot pressurized water allowed an extraction of 41.51 g of steviol glycosides for rebaudioside A and 6.76 g for stevioside per 100 g of leaves subjected to processing. The chemical analysis of the alternative and commercial chocolates indicated that the fat and total dietary fiber contents showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) between the dark chocolates, unlike the other components. Moisture, ash, fat, and protein contents were slightly higher in the two types of chocolate, and carbohydrate content was 4.1 % lower than in the commercial chocolate. Both products had 0 % added sugars and high dietary fiber content (> 37 %), and there was a reduction of 100 kcal/100 g compared to the commercial brand. Consumer sensory evaluation showed a higher level of liking (p < 0.05) for the elaborated chocolate with respect to the commercial product in attributes such as appearance, color, and texture. These findings suggest the use of stevia extracts obtained by pressurized hot water as a non-caloric sweetener for healthy, alternative dark chocolates suitable for people with diabetes.

Teacher’s Verbal and Nonverbal Communication on Students’ Motivation in Learning English

This study focuses on the teacher's verbal and nonverbal communication as well as the student's motivation in EFL classes. The goals of this study were to (1) assess the types of verbal and nonverbal communication used by teachers in EFL classrooms and (2) investigate how verbal and nonverbal communication influences students' motivation. The descriptive-qualitative method was utilized in this study. The research subjects were a teacher and 4 students selected from two classes in tenth-grade at MAN 3 Tasikmalaya. Data were gathered through observation (video recording) and interviews. The findings of this study revealed that the verbal type of FIACS and Schmitz has been fulfilled. There are the seven types of teacher verbal communication used in the classroom by the teacher. However, the researcher discovered that the most dominant type of teacher verbal communication is asking question in this study. In addition, the researcher engages in fourth sorts of nonverbal communication. Regarding the teacher's nonverbal communication, the researcher discovered that the most dominant type is kinesics such us body movement and gestures in this study. The findings also revealed that the teacher's verbal and nonverbal communication had a beneficial impact on their motivation to learn English. Positive effects include a sense of caring, a better understanding, a sensation of pleasure or comfort, an eagerness to learn, a sense of being appreciated and respected, as well as a sense of respect.

It makes me happy: anthropomorphism increases consumer preference for healthy food

PurposePeople frequently experience a conflict between immediate pleasure and long-term health when consuming healthy food. This study investigates how anthropomorphizing healthy food influences consumers’ sense of pleasure and their subsequent food preferences.Design/methodology/approachUsing different samples and food items, the authors conducted five online or laboratory studies to provide empirical support for the research hypothesis, rule out potential alternative explanations, and demonstrate boundary conditions.FindingsBy conducting five empirical studies involving self-reported and actual eating preferences, this study found that anthropomorphism increases consumer preference for and actual intake of healthy food. Such an anthropomorphism effect is driven by the increased positive affect evoked by anthropomorphism. However, this positive effect is suppressed for consumers who experience low trust in their affective feelings. Additionally, the effect is weakened when consumers readily attribute their affective feelings to a target-irrelevant source.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on healthy consumption, anthropomorphism, and mood, revealing whether and how food anthropomorphism affects consumers. For marketers in the field of healthy food and relevant policymakers, anthropomorphic means can be employed, such as giving products human names, to enhance consumer preference for them. Moreover, anthropomorphizing can help alleviate consumers’ concerns about the relative lack of pleasurable taste in healthy foods and compensate for the lack of hedonic value that consumers may feel, thereby enhancing consumer welfare.HighlightsAnthropomorphism increases consumer preference for healthy food and actual intake of it.The anthropomorphism effect is driven by the increased positive affect evoked by anthropomorphism, through which affective feelings offer evaluative and decisional informativeness for judgments and decision-making.The positive effect of anthropomorphism is suppressed for consumers who experience low trust in their affective feelings.The anthropomorphism effect is weakened when consumers readily attribute their affective feelings to a target-irrelevant source.

Unconscious Pleasure as Dispositional Pleasure

ABSTRACT A good deal of recent debate over the nature of pleasure and pain has surrounded the alleged phenomenon of unconscious sensory pleasure and pain, or pleasures and pains whose subjects are entirely unaware of them while experiencing them. According to Ben Bramble, these putative pleasures and pains present a problem for attitudinal theories of pleasure and pain, since these theories claim that what makes something a sensory pleasure or pain is that one has a special sort of pro- or con-attitude toward it at the time one experiences it. In this paper, I look at the two existing defences of attitudinal theories against this worry and explain (following Bramble) that each is inadequate. I show that this inadequacy is in part a result of existing attitudinal theories failing to recognize an important distinction in pro- and con-attitudes, and I propose and defend an amended attitudinal view that does recognize this distinction. I then offer a more promising response to the objection from unconscious sensory pleasures and pains: that experiences of apparently unconscious pleasure or pain only seem pleasant or unpleasant because their subjects are disposed to experience pleasantness or unpleasantness. In this sense, unconscious pleasures and pains are not really pleasures or pains at all.

Experiential processing increases positive affect and decreases dampening appraisals during autobiographical memory recall in an anhedonic sample

Anhedonia is characterized by diminished reward processing, which may be explained in part by dampening appraisals, or thoughts that blunt positive emotions. Experiential processing, or attending to sensory and bodily experience, may curb dampening appraisals, as compared to analytical processing, or conceptually thinking about an event. In this study, 96 participants with elevated anhedonia completed writing tasks, in which they recalled positive autobiographical memories. Participants recalled the first memory as they naturally would to assess spontaneous use of processing mode and were then randomized to recall the second positive memory using either experiential, analytical, or control instructions. Both spontaneous and instructed experiential processing were associated with greater positive affect and less dampening compared to analytical processing. Clinical implications include savoring pleasant sensations to reduce dampening and enhance positive affect in anhedonia.

The Sublime Divinity: Erotic Affectivity in Renaissance Religious Art

In the context of the Catholic Reformation serious concerns were expressed about the affective potency of naturalistic depictions of beautiful, sensuous figures in religious art. In theological discourse similar anxieties had long been articulated about potential contiguities between elevating, licit desire for an extraordinarily beautiful divinity and base, illicit feeling. In the later fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, in the decades preceding the Council of Trent, a handful of writers, thinkers and artists asserted a positive connection between spirituality and sexuality. Leonardo da Vinci, and a group of painters working under his aegis in Lombardy, were keenly aware of painting’s capacity to evoke feeling in a viewer. Pictures they produced for domestic devotion featured knowingly sensuous and unusually epicene beauties. This article suggests that this iconography daringly advocated the value of pleasurable sensation to religiosity. Its popularity allows us to envisage beholders who were neither mired in sin, nor seeking to divorce themselves from the physical realm, but engaging afresh with age-old dialectics of body and soul, sexuality and spirituality.

Peran Guru Menumbuhkan Kerjasama dan Motivasi Belajar Siswa pada Kelas V Sekolah Dasar

This study was conducted to determine the role of teachers in fostering student cooperation and student learning motivation in learning in the Merdeka Curriculum. This research uses descriptive research with a qualitative approach. The data used is qualitative data. The subject of this research is the fifth-grade teacher of SDN Jomblang 01. The procedure carried out in this research starts from the description, reduction and selection stages. Data collection techniques and instruments are interviews, observation, and documentation. Data analysis used is reduction, data display, conclusion, drawing/verfication. Based on the results of the study, it is found that the role of teachers in fostering student cooperation and student learning motivation is as expected. Learning is carried out in line with the applicable curriculum. In learning in the Merdeka Curriculum, the attitudes developed are the attitude of being actively involved in group work, respecting their friends‘opinions, being able to do cooperation tasks on time, the desire to get maximum learning scores, students’ enthusiasm in doing assignments, and a sense of pleasure when learning takes place.

Emotional economies of pleasure among the gentry of eighteenth-century England

ABSTRACT This article analyses familial cultures and exchanges of pleasure among 11 eighteenth-century gentry families. The research is based on a substantial collection of family correspondence and identifies emotion words within these letters to understand familial conversations about pleasure and the various purposes that pleasure was put to. Here pleasure is problematised and studied as an emotion. There are three main arguments. Firstly, the letters reveal a previously hidden world of family pleasure, connected to but in some ways remote from the public and sensory pleasures of the urban renaissance that most previous studies have focused on. The letters reveal an emotional economy of pleasure, where feelings materialised as currencies underlying the building and breaking of family relationships. Secondly, pleasure was not a singular or solitary feeling, but rather operated in affective clusters with other emotions such as anxiety and surprise. Finally, pleasure and displeasure were vital in keeping good order among the gentry and between the gentry and their subordinates, within inheritance systems and family dynamics where inequality and an unequal distribution of resources were part of everyday life.

THE USE OF FORMATIVE EVALUATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SPATIAL BUILDINGS FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS BASED ON AUGMENTED REALITY

Learning media for elementary school students is an important tool that has developed in line with technological advances. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate learning media development on building space materials using Augmented Reality (AR) technology. Formative evaluation consists of initial analysis and stages. In addition, this study used 15 SDIT students, Alam Nurul Islam and Yogyakarta. The questionnaires distributed were related to the respondents' attitudes and responses. The results showed that students reacted positively to the development of AR learning media, and validation from experts obtained a feasibility percentage of 85.34% with valid criteria. Meanwhile, student responses expressed a sense of pleasure when the teacher explained the use of AR learning media. Mathematics material is easy to understand because geometry objects are realized as 3D objects through AR learning media. In addition, students are more active in learning by using AR learning media.

Female Individuality and Social Conventions of the Enlightenment in the Correspondence between Valentin Jamеrai-Duval and Anastasia Sokolova

This article examines the interpretation of the theme of the manifestation of female individuality in mid-eighteenth-century Russia on the basis of the correspondence (1762–1774) between Valentin Jamerai-Duval, a French philosopher and autodidact in the Austrian service, and Anastasia Sokolova, a lady-in-waiting to Empress Catherine II, married to De Ribas. At the beginning of the correspondence, Jamerai-Duval’s interest in Russia, like that of many Europeans, is based on inaccurate book sources and common stereotypes. Their conceptual motifs are “barbarism”, ignorance and violence, both in the family and in society. The dialogue between the two correspondents gradually overcomes these stereotypes. They discuss a wide range of issues related to the expression of the female personality: choice of spouse and celibacy, love and sensual pleasure in marriage; criteria of attractiveness (physical and mental beauty), following fashion and individual style, etc. Special attention is paid in the correspondence to the questions of women’s education and intellectual development, in which reading plays an important role. The Russian-Turkish war of 1768–1774 reactivated the issue of violence against women, this time as a need to protect them from the despotism of the infidels in the Ottoman Empire. Ignorance and religious prejudice in the environment of the Old Believers are also seen by the correspondents as a manifestation of tyranny over women’s personality.

Brain representations of affective valence and intensity in sustained pleasure and pain

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 (n = 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 (n = 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.

New haptic systems for elicit emotions in audio-visual events for hearing impaired people.

In this research we have developed devices for hearing impaired people that can transmit the emotions evoked by music. In this way, we will all achieve the full inclusion of impairment people in all social activities. As this is an issue that goes beyond pure engineering research, it has been necessary to create a multidisciplinary group within the Spanish Centre for Captioning and Audio Description (CESyA), in direct collaboration with the Display and Photonic Applications Research Group (GDAF) and the Human Language and Accessibility Technologies Group (HULAT) of the Carlos III University (UC3M) and the Psychiatry and Applied Communication Departments of the Complutense University of Madrid. For this research, a pair of haptic gloves were developed, which transmit different characteristics extracted from music by means of vibrational sequences, intended to drive an emotional reinforcement. Another device, a “music box”, a vibration box, was also developed from the idea of using vibration as an instrument.Overall, the acceptance of the glove was positive, with an 80% of users accepting the negative video, repeatedly stating in the surveys that they "felt more when the glove vibrated". The music box was also well received. Volunteers felt that the system gave them a pleasant sensation and that they could feel the music. However, some participants associated the vibration with the sensation of an alarm clock, which was expectedly negative.Considering the obtained EEG results, we can conclude that the integration of simple multimodal stimuli, visual and vibrotactile, helps to enhance the activation of emotional processes linked with musical stimulation. It can also be concluded that multimodal visual and vibrotactile stimulation enhances both attentional and emotional processes. These results pave the way for future developments that will allow a hearing-impaired person to fully enjoy an audiovisual event, which will have a great impact on this group.