Differential contributions of ventral striatum subregions to the motivational and hedonic components of the affective processing of the reward

The ventral striatum is implicated in the affective processing of the reward, which can be divided into a motivational and a hedonic component. Here, we examined whether these two components rely on distinct neural substrates within the ventral striatum in humans. We used a high-resolution fMRI protocol targeting the ventral striatum combined with a Pavlovian instrumental task and a hedonic reactivity task. Both tasks involved an olfactory reward, thereby allowing us to measure Pavlovian-triggered motivation and sensory pleasure for the same reward within the same participants. Our findings show that different subregions of the ventral striatum are dissociable in their contributions to the motivational and the hedonic component of the affective processing of the reward. Parsing the neural mechanisms and the interplay between Pavlovian incentive processes and hedonic processes might have important implications for understanding compulsive reward-seeking behaviors such as addiction, binge eating, or gambling.

Food motivational factors of tourists to Greece

Despite the fact that tourism is one of Greece's economic pillars and that food can lead to greater satisfaction and loyalty to the destination, little research effort has been devoted to understanding tourists' food consumption complexities. In response, this study aimed at investigating the themes behind the food motivations of international tourists to Greece. A qualitative approach was deployed by implementing semi-structured interviews among tour-ists (n=28), and a thematic analysis was conducted in order to categorize interviewees' statements into eight themes: local culture learning, authentic experience, novelty seeking, social interactions, sensory pleasure, health concerns, familiar food, and the need for suste-nance. These motivations were heterogeneous and exerted significant influence over food choices and eating behavior. Even though Greek destinations attract tourists primarily seek-ing journey-related food elements, other secondary motivations involving travel intentions independent of local gastronomy should not be neglected. Although the factors identified may not be exhaustive, this study provides a clear model for further research concerning tourists' food motivational factors in Greece and other Mediterranean destinations.

The Effect of Sensory Satiety on Perceived Benefits: The Case of Aesthetic Consumption in South Korea

Repeated exposure to aesthetic design results in consumers experiencing satiation because of sensory satiety. In other words, being consistently exposed to aesthetic stimuli activates consumers’ sensory satiety, defined as the drop in sensory pleasure, and the resulting reduction of their value of aesthetic products ultimately leads to switching intentions. That is, sensory satiety reduces functional and emotional benefits. Furthermore, consumers are unlikely to recall every item they have consumed, and are instead likely to focus on a particular option. Thus, this study predicts that consumers can recover from satiation over time. This research proposes that both satiation and accustomedness negatively affect functional benefit. As an empirical study, the research uses a multiple regression model for two purposes: The first is to test the impact of sensory satiety on perceived benefits, and the second is to observe the change in sensory satiety over time. We find that satiation and accustomedness, as sub-dimensional scales of sensory satiety, reduce perceived benefits. The results showed that it is clear that only satiation reduced functional benefits, whereas both satiation and accustomedness reduced emotional benefits. In addition, our study confirms the change in sensory satiety over time. Consumers who have been continuously exposed to, and used, aesthetic products become accustomed to them and feel satiated. Based on these results, this study will be useful for the sustainability of the product life cycle.

Drugs in the Wunderkammer

Chapter 3 is devoted to a non-medical use of drugs: as collector’s items and objects of research in the Wunderkammer, which was popular in the early modern period. I argue that Joannes Six van Chandelier sees the wondrous nature of exotic collectibles as sources not only of sensory pleasure and of insights into nature, but also of moral danger, especially the vices avarice and curiositas, an immoderate and un-Christian thirst for knowledge. In poems on rarities such as bezoar stone, tulips, and human and animal bones, Six develops literary strategies that present himself as a learned merchant who recognises these dangers and has them well in hand.

When to Hide your (Tears of) Joy: Display Rules for Positive Emotions

People do not always show how they feel; norms dictate when to display emotions and to whom. Norms about emotional expressions – known as display rules – are weaker for happiness than for negative emotions (Matsumoto, 2005), suggesting that expressing positive emotions is generally seen as acceptable. But does it follow that all positive emotions can always be shared with everyone? Here, we introduce the Display Rules Assessment for Positive Emotions (DRAPE), an intersubjective measure of expression norms for eight positive emotions: admiration, amusement, feeling moved, gratitude, interest, relief, sensory pleasure, and triumph. In four studies with participants from seven countries (n = 1147), two consistent findings emerged: display rules for positive emotions are weakest when with close others and/or in private settings, and display rules are strongest for a positive emotion that signals vulnerability: feeling moved. We further demonstrate that display rules for positive emotions exhibit cross-cultural differences, with stronger display rules found in more collectivistic and more culturally tight (as compared to loose) countries. In addition, we establish the internal reliability, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity of the DRAPE. Our findings show considerable agreement in norms regarding when and to whom positive emotions should be displayed, but also point to divergence across different positive emotions and across cultures. In addition to providing a validated, theoretically grounded measure of display rules for positive emotions, we provide the first map of expression norms for specific positive emotions.

Fragrant Spaces between Words: Prolonging Shōjo Liminality into Adulthood in the Poetry of Yonezawa Nobuko

This essay argues that, in 1920s Japanese Symbolist poetry and perfume advertising, women inhabit a space of ambiguity, where bodily experience is elevated as the highest form of creativity and knowledge. Yonezawa’s poems prolong the liminality of the shōjo, or girl, archetype into adult womanhood, thereby transgressing the border between womanhood and girlhood. In her poetry, Yonezawa uses fragrance to portray the inherent sexuality of poetic creation, creating a feminine, sexual creative voice. Yonezawa uses the idealized homosocial relationships found in shōjo culture to imagine a world determined by the creativity and community of women. The relationships between women feature ecstatic sensory pleasure and shared poetic inspiration, brokered by the sense of smell.

‘It’s not too much, is it?’: Keats, Fancy and the Ethics of Pleasurable Excess in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette

This chapter explores Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette in relation to personal subjectivity and excess, specifically drawing on notions of poetic fancy, modernity, gender and ‘unwholesome’ consumption, and the poetry of John Keats. Coppola’s emphasis on sensation and surfaces elicits what Keats refers to as the ‘material sublime’, an engagement with sensory excess contrasted with the core subjectivity the Romantic sublime invokes. The film is compared to Keats’ Lamia, an allegorical poem about attempted psychological recuperation through aesthetic excess, as well as Colin Campbell’s description of ‘modern autonomous imaginative hedonism’. The chapter also engages with the ‘depth model’ of Romantic subjecthood that Coppola brings to the fore when Marie Antoinette’s bulwark of sensory pleasure is stripped away, along with its attendant aesthetic function, signalling not just the maturation found in her ethical acknowledgement of the suffering of others, but also her imminent death.

Poppies and Peacocks, Jasmine and Jackfruit: Garden Images and Horticultural Knowledge in the Literatures of Mughal India, 1600–1800

Persian, Braj Bhāṣā, and Urdu literatures in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Mughal India evolved a common repertoire for the depiction of gardens. Drawing on earlier Persian and Sanskrit models but reflecting material developments of the time, including the influx of new American plants, this mode of writing gardens appeared primarily in a particular type of garden set piece in narrative or descriptive works, but also in references across genres. Apart from allowing for elaborate literary conceits, these conventions served to display knowledge and convey specific notions of material luxury and sensory pleasure.

Pleasure

Three irreducible kinds of pleasure are distinguished: sensory, intentional (taking pleasure in an object), and pure feeling. Each has its distinct opposite in pain or distress. None is the typical end of desire or motivation, although pleasant thoughts are components of desires. Sensory pleasure is of value to subjects, but only a very partial component of a good life. Intentional pleasure is a byproduct of activities and objects we aim at, and again only a partial measure of well-being. The pure feeling of pleasure is the rare warm glow we feel when we are lucky enough to receive very good news. Thus pleasure of any kind, sought directly only in such areas as food and sex, may be necessary for a good life, but, unless we are Don Juan, never sufficient.

A Contemporary Account of Sensory Pleasure

Some sensations are pleasant, some are unpleasant, and some are neither. Furthermore, those that are pleasant or unpleasant are so to different degrees. This chapter explores what kind of a difference is the difference between these three kinds of sensations. After going over some standard puzzles about pleasure and some popular philosophical theories, the chapter develops the author’s own account, which is a comprehensive three-level account of sensory pleasure that simultaneously is adverbialist, is functionalist and is also a version of a satisfied experiential-desire account.