The Assessment of Eating Pleasure among Older Adults: Development and Preliminary Validation of the Anticipatory and Consummatory Eating Pleasure (ACEPS).

OBJECTIVE: Maintaining eating pleasure as long as possible is one of the determinants that contributes to and encourages good nutrition in the ageing population. Our study aimed to translate, adapt to the context of food and validate the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (which distinguishes anticipatory and consummatory experiences of pleasure) in a food dependent older French population. DESIGN: Prospective validation study. SETTING: 199 participants dependent for their meals, over 65 years old and living at home. MEASUREMENTS: A pool of 16 self-reported items constituted the initial version of the anticipatory and consummatory eating pleasure scale (ACEPS). Demographic data, nutritional status, appetite and depressive mood were also assessed. RESULTS: The exploratory factorial analysis and also the confirmatory factor analysis highlighted a two-factor model: anticipatory eating pleasure (four items) and consummatory eating pleasure (four items). The ACEPS showed good internal consistency. A higher score on the ACEPS positively correlated with appetite. Consummatory eating pleasure positively correlated with nutritional status and negatively correlated with depressive moods. The oldest-old and also those receiving a meals-on-wheels service had lower scores for anticipatory pleasure (r=-.14, p<.03). CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, the ACEPS is the first comprehensive measure of eating pleasure distinguishing anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. This short measure, easily applicable on older people with vulnerability, allows early identification and intervention preventing malnutrition and decline in health. Specifically, encouraging anticipatory eating pleasure may be a first step to improving food intake among older adults.

Animal Assisted Therapy for Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Parent perspectives.

Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) is an intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study explores parent perspectives of the impact of five AAT sessions involving trained dogs with their children with ASD. A phenomenological qualitative approach was used to explore first-hand perspectives of parents. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Seventeen parents reported that the presence of the dogs facilitated their children's engagement, enjoyment, and motivation. Parents also reported that this contributed to gains in the child's communication with others and the dog (n = 11, 64.7%), behavioral regulation (n = 12, 70.6%), and community participation (n = 14, 82.3%). These findings indicate that parents supported the use of AAT and that dogs facilitated therapeutic gains.

Self-assessment of negative symptoms - Critical appraisal of the motivation and pleasure - Self-report's (MAP-SR) validity and reliability.

OBJECTIVE: The negative symptom domain remains a major challenge concerning treatment. A valid self-report measure could assist clinicians and researchers in identifying patients with a relevant subjective burden. The Motivation and Pleasure - Self Report (MAP-SR) derives from the CAINS and is supposed to reflect the "amotivation" factor of negative symptoms. We evaluated different aspects of the scale's reliability and validity. This is the first factorial analysis as well as the first analysis of test-retest reliability. METHODS: We assessed three samples of subjects with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (n = 93) and a broad spectrum of related domains. RESULTS: We explored a 3-, 2- and 1-factor solution (explaining 50.93, 44.85 and 36.18% of variance, respectively). The factor "pleasure and hedonic activity" consists of eight items and was most robust; the factors "social motivation" and "motivation for work" were problematic. Test-retest reliability of the scale was adequate (rS = 0.63, p = .005). Neither the MAP-SR nor the "pleasure and hedonic activities" factor are associated with the PANSS negative symptom scale. There are significant associations with the observer-rated CAINS-MAP scale, experiences of pleasure, and social cognition but none with functional outcome. Discriminant validity could not be established with regards to depression and extrapyramidal symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: We found that the MAP-SR is adequate to assess anhedonia but is less suitable when assessing motivation. Therefore, we propose using the "pleasure and hedonic activity scale" to cover the "anhedonia" subdomain. We think the "motivation" part of the instrument requires reconstruction.

Assessment of Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS): the dimension of anhedonia in Italian healthy sample.

The Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) is a rapid screening battery created for assessing the presence of anhedonia, namely the inability to experience pleasure. Although, this symptom has widely been investigated in clinical settings, individual differences in anhedonia are also present in healthy population. The aim of present study was to validate the translated Italian version of this test. One thousand six hundred ninety-seven consecutive healthy subjects (55% female) of different ages (age 18-82 years) underwent SHAPS. Participants who showed mild level of anhedonia also completed the Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS), Mood Disorders Insight Scale (MDIS), and Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS). The SHAPS showed good internal consistency and discriminant validity; moreover, the factorial analysis highlighted that SHAPS had a three-factor structure for explaining the anhedonic construct. 14.9% showed a significant reduction of hedonic tone (SHAPS ≥ 3). Finally, the degree of anhedonia was significantly correlated with BDI and BHS scores, but not with age or gender. Although anhedonia is a prominent feature of many psychiatric and neurological disorders, the presence of this symptom in the healthy population highlighted the importance to develop reliable tool. SHAPS shows good psychometric properties to assess multidimensional anhedonia symptoms also in Italian healthy population.

The indirect assessment of social anhedonia in Chinese adolescents: Preliminary findings.

Nearly all self-report measures of anhedonia have been developed for use in adults. Recently we developed an age and developmentally appropriate measure of social/interpersonal pleasure for adolescents (ACIPS-A), whereby lower scores are indicative of social anhedonia. However the scale had not been administered to Eastern samples. The adolescent version of the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS-A) was administered to a general, community-derived Chinese adolescent sample of 442 students, including 186 males (44%), who ranged in age from 12 to 18 years old. The 20-item Chinese Temporal Experience of Pleasure (TEPS) was also administered to the sample. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that three factors (Casual bonding, Close relationships, and Shared interests) accounted for nearly 69% of the variance. The total ACIPS-A showed excellent internal consistency, with ordinal alpha = 0.94. Scores on the adolescent version of the ACIPS were positively and significantly associated with total scores on the four Chinese TEPS subscales. The ACIPS-A is a sufficiently robust measure to be useful and valid in Chinese samples as well as in Western (i.e. European and U.S.) samples.

Measuring aesthetic emotions: A review of the literature and a new assessment tool.

Aesthetic perception and judgement are not merely cognitive processes, but also involve feelings. Therefore, the empirical study of these experiences requires conceptualization and measurement of aesthetic emotions. Despite the long-standing interest in such emotions, we still lack an assessment tool to capture the broad range of emotions that occur in response to the perceived aesthetic appeal of stimuli. Elicitors of aesthetic emotions are not limited to the arts in the strict sense, but extend to design, built environments, and nature. In this article, we describe the development of a questionnaire that is applicable across many of these domains: the Aesthetic Emotions Scale (Aesthemos). Drawing on theoretical accounts of aesthetic emotions and an extensive review of extant measures of aesthetic emotions within specific domains such as music, literature, film, painting, advertisements, design, and architecture, we propose a framework for studying aesthetic emotions. The Aesthemos, which is based on this framework, contains 21 subscales with two items each, that are designed to assess the emotional signature of responses to stimuli's perceived aesthetic appeal in a highly differentiated manner. These scales cover prototypical aesthetic emotions (e.g., the feeling of beauty, being moved, fascination, and awe), epistemic emotions (e.g., interest and insight), and emotions indicative of amusement (humor and joy). In addition, the Aesthemos subscales capture both the activating (energy and vitality) and the calming (relaxation) effects of aesthetic experiences, as well as negative emotions that may contribute to aesthetic displeasure (e.g., the feeling of ugliness, boredom, and confusion).

Electrophysiological assessment of driving pleasure and difficulty using a task-irrelevant probe technique.

The amplitude of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited by task-irrelevant auditory probes decreases when more attentional resources are allocated to a visual task. This task-irrelevant probe technique is considered to be useful in assessing the degree of interest in a visual task, as well as task difficulty. The present study examined the amplitude of the N1 and P2 components elicited by task-irrelevant auditory probes during a driving task in a simulated environment. The analysis of ERPs showed that the N1 amplitude decreased when participants drove on the road course that had more frequent and sharper curves, whereas the P2 amplitude decreased when the road contained sharper curves, irrespective of curve frequency. Subjective ratings of driving pleasure and difficulty showed the same variation patterns as the N1 and P2 amplitudes, respectively. These results suggest that use of the task-irrelevant probe technique can assess the degree of driving pleasure and difficulty separately.

Self-assessment of genital anatomy and sexual function within a Belgian, Dutch-speaking female population: a validation study.

INTRODUCTION: Data on self-perceived genital anatomy and sensitivity should be part of the long-term follow-up of genitoplasty procedures. However, no normative data, based on a large sample, exist to date. AIMS: Validation of the Self-Assessment of Genital Anatomy and Sexual Function, Female version (SAGAS-F) questionnaire within a Belgian, Dutch-speaking female population. METHODS: Seven hundred forty-nine women with no history of genital surgery (aged 18-69 years, median 25 years) completed an Internet-based survey of whom 21 women underwent a gynecological examination as to correlate self-reported genital sensitivity assessed in an experimental setting. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The SAGAS-F enables women to rate the sexual pleasure, discomfort, intensity of orgasm, and effort required for achieving orgasm in specified areas around the clitoris and within the vagina, as well as genital appearance. The latter was similarly evaluated by an experienced gynecologist, and women were asked to functionally rate the anatomical areas pointed out with a vaginal swab. RESULTS: Sexual pleasure and orgasm were strongest, and effort to attain orgasm and discomfort was lowest when stimulating the clitoris and sides of the clitoris (P < 0.05). Vaginal sensitivity increased with increasing vaginal depth, but overall orgasmic sensitivity was lower as compared with the clitoris. Functional scores on the SAGAS-F and during gynecological examination corresponded highly on most anatomical areas (P < 0.05). Gynecologist's ratings corresponded highly with the women's ratings for vaginal size (90%) but not for clitoral size (48%). CONCLUSIONS: Replication of the original pilot study results support the validity of the questionnaire. The SAGAS-F discriminates reasonably well between various genital areas in terms of erotic sensitivity. The clitoris itself appeared to be the most sensitive, consistent with maximum nerve density in this area. Surgery to the clitoris could disrupt neurological pathways and compromise erotic sensation and pleasure.

Value, pleasure and choice in the ventral prefrontal cortex.

Rapid advances have recently been made in understanding how value-based decision-making processes are implemented in the brain. We integrate neuroeconomic and computational approaches with evidence on the neural correlates of value and experienced pleasure to describe how systems for valuation and decision-making are organized in the prefrontal cortex of humans and other primates. We show that the orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal (VMPFC) cortices compute expected value, reward outcome and experienced pleasure for different stimuli on a common value scale. Attractor networks in VMPFC area 10 then implement categorical decision processes that transform value signals into a choice between the values, thereby guiding action. This synthesis of findings across fields provides a unifying perspective for the study of decision-making processes in the brain.

Quantitative assessment of pleasant touch.

The hedonic attributes of tactile stimulation are important to one's quality of life, yet they have rarely been studied scientifically. The earliest experimental investigations suggested soft and smooth materials as pleasant, those that were stiff, rough, or coarse as unpleasant. More recent studies conducted by the authors and described herein obtained ratings of pleasantness of different textured materials stroked across the skin of multiple body sites at controlled velocities and forces of application. Statistically significant interactions between materials, sites, velocities, forces and subject sex attest to the complexity of the percept. Less pleasant percepts arose from stimuli that were rougher. However, the difficulty in making further general statements regarding hedonic touch raises questions as to whether the body surface can be mapped affectively in a meaningful manner with a single stimulus and indeed whether pleasantness-to-touch can be viewed as a unidimensional construct.

Exercisers' perceptions of their fitness instructor's interacting style, perceived competence, and autonomy as a function of self-determined regulation to exercise, enjoyment, affect, and exercise frequency.

The primary purpose of the present investigation was to test the hypothesis, derived from Self-Determination Theory (SDT), that an individual's perceived competence and autonomy mediate the relationship between the exercisers' perception of their instructor's interaction style and the exercisers' motivation to exercise. A secondary purpose was to identify the affective and behavioral outcomes derived from self-determined regulation. It was hypothesized that SDT would significantly explain and predict exercise behavior. Participants consisted of 238 college students, 103 males and 135 females (M age = 20.4 years, SD = 2.16), who volunteered to participate in the study. They were asked to complete a battery of questionnaires measuring instructor's interacting style, self-regulation to exercise, perceived autonomy and competence, enjoyment, positive and negative affect, and exercise frequency. Using structural equation modeling with observed variables, the results showed that perceived competence and autonomy mediated the relationship between perceived instructor's interacting style and self-determined regulation. It was also found that self-determined regulation was significantly related to exercise enjoyment, positive affect, and exercise frequency. It was concluded that understanding the motivational factors and emotional and behavioral consequences of physical activity will partially explain an individual's motives to engage regularly in exercise.