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Pleasure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pleasure describes the broad class of mental states that humans and other animals experience as
positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific mental states such as happiness,
entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria. The early psychological account of pleasure, the
pleasure principle, describes it as a positive feedback mechanism, motivating the organism to
recreate in the future the situation which it has just found pleasurable and to avoid situations that
have caused pain in the past.[1]

The experience of pleasure is subjective and different individuals will experience different kinds
and amounts of pleasure in the same situation. Many pleasurable experiences are associated with
satisfying basic biological drives, such as eating, exercise, hygiene, and sex.[2] The appreciation of
cultural artifacts and activities such as art, music, dancing, and literature is often pleasurable.[2]

Based upon the incentive salience model of reward the attractive and motivational property of a
stimulus that induces approach behavior and consummatory behavior[2] an intrinsic reward has
two components: a "wanting" or desire component which is reflected in approach behavior and a
"liking" or pleasure component that is reflected in consummatory behavior.[2] While all pleasurable
stimuli are rewards, some rewards do not evoke pleasure.[2]

Contents
1 Neuropsychology
1.1 Neurobiological basis
1.2 Psychology
2 Philosophical views
2.1 Philosophies of pleasure
3 As a uniquely human experience
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

Neuropsychology
Neurobiological basis

Pleasure centers or "hedonic hotspots" are a set of brain structures within the reward system that are

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directly responsible for mediating the "liking" or pleasure component of an intrinsic reward, as
opposed to brain structures that activate in correlation with or as a consequence of the perception of
pleasure.[3] Various compartments within the nucleus accumbens, ventral pallidum, and
parabrachial nucleus have been identified as pleasure centers which respond to a variety of
pleasurable stimuli.[3][4] The orbitofrontal cortex and insular cortex likely contain hedonic hotspots
as well.[4] The anterior cingulate cortex, ventral tegmental area, and amygdala have also been
observed to activate in functional neuroimaging studies in response to pleasurable stimuli, but these
structures do not necessarily contain hedonic hotspots.[3][5]

The simultaneous activation of every hedonic hotspot within the reward system is believed to be
necessary for generating the sensation of an intense euphoria.[6]

Psychology

Pleasure is considered to be one of the core dimensions of emotion. It can be described as the
positive evaluation that forms the basis for several more elaborate evaluations such as "agreeable"
or "nice". As such, pleasure is an affect and not an emotion, as it forms one component of several
different emotions.[7] Pleasure is sometimes subdivided into fundamental pleasures that are closely
related to survival (food, sex, and social belonging) and higher-order pleasures (e.g., viewing art
and altruism).[8] The clinical condition of being unable to experience pleasure from usually
enjoyable activities is called anhedonia. An active aversion to obtaining pleasure is called
hedonophobia.

Pleasure is often regarded as a bipolar construct, meaning that the two ends of the spectrum from
pleasant to unpleasant are mutually exclusive. This view is e.g. inherent in the circumplex model of
affect.[9] Yet, some lines of research suggest that people do experience pleasant and unpleasant
feelings at the same time, giving rise to so-called mixed feelings.[10][11][12]

The degree to which something or someone is experienced as pleasurable not only depends on its
objective attributes (appearance, sound, taste, texture, etc.), but on beliefs about its history, about
the circumstances of its creation, about its rarity, fame, or price, and on other non-intrinsic
attributes, such as the social status or identity it conveys. For example, a sweater that has been worn
by a celebrity will be more desired than an otherwise identical sweater that has not, though
considerably less so if it has been washed.[13] Another example was when Grammy-winning,
internationally acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell played in the Washington D.C. subway for 43
minutes, attracting little attention from the 1,097 people who passed by, and earning about $59 in
tips.[13][14][15] Paul Bloom describes these phenomena as arising from a form of essentialism.

Philosophical views
Epicurus and his followers defined the highest pleasure as the absence of suffering[16] and pleasure
itself as "freedom from pain in the body and freedom from turmoil in the soul".[17] According to

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Cicero (or rather his character Torquatus) Epicurus also believed that pleasure was the chief good
and pain the chief evil.[18]

In the 12th century Razi's "Treatise of the Self and the Spirit" (Kitab al Nafs Wal Ruh) analyzed
different types of pleasure, sensuous and intellectual, and explained their relations with one another.
He concludes that human needs and desires are endless, and "their satisfaction is by definition
impossible."[19]

The 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer understood pleasure as a negative

sensation, one that negates the usual existential condition of suffering.[20]

Philosophies of pleasure

Utilitarianism and hedonism are philosophies that advocate increasing to the maximum the amount
of pleasure and minimizing the amount of suffering.

As a uniquely human experience

In the past, there has been debate as to whether pleasure is experienced by other animals rather than
being an exclusive property of humankind; however, it is now known that animals do experience
pleasure, as measured by objective behavioral and neural hedonic responses to pleasurable
stimuli.[4]

See also
False pleasure Orgasm
Flow (psychology) Pain and pleasure
Gratification Sadomasochism
Leisure Happiness

References
1. Freud, Siegmund (1950). Beyond the pleasure 2. Schultz W (2015). "Neuronal reward and
principle. New York: Liveright. decision signals: from theories to data".
Physiological Reviews. 95 (3): 853951.
doi:10.1152/physrev.00023.2014.
PMC 4491543 . PMID 26109341. "Rewards
induce approach behavior, also called appetitive
or preparatory behavior, and consummatory
behavior. ... Thus any stimulus, object, event,
activity, or situation that has the potential to
make us approach and consume it is by

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definition a reward. ... Rewards can also be 3. Berridge KC, Robinson TE, Aldridge JW
intrinsic to behavior (31, 546, 547). They (2009). "Dissecting components of reward:
contrast with extrinsic rewards that provide 'liking', 'wanting', and learning". Current
motivation for behavior and constitute the Opinion in Pharmacology. 9 (1): 6573.
essence of operant behavior in laboratory tests. doi:10.1016/j.coph.2008.12.014. PMC 2756052
Intrinsic rewards are activities that are . PMID 19162544. "A major goal for affective
pleasurable on their own and are undertaken for neuroscience is to identify which brain
their own sake, without being the means for substrates cause pleasure, whether subjective or
getting extrinsic rewards. We may even objective. Neuroimaging and neural recording
generate our own rewards through internal studies of have found that rewards ranging from
decisions. Mice in the wild enter wheels and sweet taste to intravenous cocaine, winning
run on them on repeated occasions without money or a smiling face activate many brain
receiving any other reward or benefit, like the structures, including orbitofrontal cortex,
proverbial wheel running hamster (358). anterior cingulate and insula, and subcortical
Movements produce proprioceptive stimulation structures such as nucleus accumbens, ventral
in muscle spindles and joint receptors, touch pallidum, ventral tegmentum, and mesolimbic
stimulation on the body surface, and visual dopamine projections, amygdala, etc.
stimulation from seeing the movement, all of [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,1113]. But which of those
which can be perceived as pleasurable and thus brain systems actually cause the pleasure of the
have reward functions. Intrinsic rewards are reward? ..."
genuine rewards in their own right, as they
induce learning, approach, and pleasure, like
perfectioning, playing, and enjoying the piano.
Although they can serve to condition higher
order rewards, they are not conditioned, higher
order rewards, as attaining their reward
properties does not require pairing with an
unconditioned reward. Other examples for
intrinsic rewards are exploration, own beauty,
gourmet eating, visiting art exhibitions, reading
books, taking power and control of people, and
investigating the natural order of the world."

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4. Berridge KC, Kringelbach ML (May 2015). 2010)."

"Pleasure systems in the brain". Neuron. 86 (3): 5. Kringelbach, Morten L.; Berridge, Kent C.
646664. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.02.018. (2010). "The Neuroscience of Happiness and
PMC 4425246 . PMID 25950633. "Pleasure is Pleasure". Soc Res.
sometimes assumed to be a purely subjective 6. Kringelbach ML, Berridge KC (2013). "The
feeling. But pleasure also has objective features Joyful Mind". From Abuse to Recovery:
in the form of measurable hedonic reactions, Understanding Addiction. Macmillan.
both neural and behavioral, to valenced events. pp. 199207. ISBN 9781466842557. Retrieved
In this review, we denote objective hedonic 8 April 2016. "So it makes sense that the real
reactions as liking reactions (with quotes) to pleasure centers in the brainthose directly
distinguish them from the subjective experience responsible for generating pleasurable
of liking (in the ordinary sense, without sensationsturn out to lie within some of the
quotes). Objective hedonic reactions can be structures previously identified as part of the
measured in both human and animal reward circuit. One of these so-called hedonic
neuroscience studies, which together allow hotspots lies in a subregion of the nucleus
some comparisons across species and can lead accumbens called the medial shell. A second is
to a more complete causal picture of how brain found within the ventral pallidum, a
systems mediate hedonic impact. ... In the deep-seated structure near the base of the
prefrontal cortex, recent evidence indicates that forebrain that receives most of its signals from
the OFC and insula cortex may each contain the nucleus accumbens. ... On the other hand,
their own additional hot spots (D.C. Castro et intense euphoria is harder to come by than
al., Soc. Neurosci., abstract). In specific everyday pleasures. The reason may be that
subregions of each area, either opioid- strong enhancement of pleasurelike the
stimulating or orexin-stimulating chemically induced pleasure bump we
microinjections appear to enhance the number produced in lab animalsseems to require
of liking reactions elicited by sweetness, activation of the entire network at once.
similar to the NAc and VP hot spots. Successful Defection of any single component dampens
confirmation of hedonic hot spots in the OFC the high."
or insula would be important and possibly 7. Frijda, Nico F. (2010). "On the Nature and
relevant to the orbitofrontal mid-anterior site Function of Pleasure". In Kringelbach, Morten
mentioned earlier that especially tracks the L.; Berridge, Kent C. Pleasures of the Brain.
subjective pleasure of foods in humans Oxford University Press. p. 99.
(Georgiadis et al., 2012; Kringelbach, 2005; 8. Kringelbach, Morten L. (2008-10-15). The
Kringelbach et al., 2003; Small et al., 2001; Pleasure Center : Trust Your Animal Instincts:
Veldhuizen et al., 2010). Finally, in the Trust Your Animal Instincts. Oxford University
brainstem, a hindbrain site near the parabrachial Press, US. ISBN 9780199717392.
nucleus of dorsal pons also appears able to 9. Posner, Jonathan; Russell, James A.; Peterson,
contribute to hedonic gains of function Bradley S. (2005-09-01). "The circumplex
(Sderpalm and Berridge, 2000). A brainstem model of affect: An integrative approach to
mechanism for pleasure may seem more affective neuroscience, cognitive development,
surprising than forebrain hot spots to anyone and psychopathology". Development and
who views the brainstem as merely reflexive, Psychopathology. 17 (03): 715734.
but the pontine parabrachial nucleus contributes doi:10.1017/S0954579405050340.
to taste, pain, and many visceral sensations ISSN 1469-2198. PMC 2367156 .
from the body and has also been suggested to PMID 16262989.
play an important role in motivation (Wu et al.,
2012) and in human emotion (especially related
to the somatic marker hypothesis) (Damasio,

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10. Schimmack, Ulrich (2001-01-01). "Pleasure, 14. "A Concert Violinist on the Metro?". NPR.org.
displeasure, and mixed feelings: Are semantic 11 April 2007.
opposites mutually exclusive?". Cognition and 15. Gene Weingarten (April 8, 2007). "Pearls
Emotion. 15 (1): 8197. Before Breakfast: Can one of the nation's great
doi:10.1080/02699930126097. musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush
ISSN 0269-9931. hour? Let's find out.". Washington Post.
11. Schimmack, Ulrich (2005-08-01). "Response 16. The Forty Principal Doctrines
latencies of pleasure and displeasure ratings: (http://wiki.epicurus.info/Principal_Doctrines),
Further evidence for mixed feelings". Cognition Number III.
and Emotion. 19 (5): 671691. 17. Letter to Menoeceus (http://wiki.epicurus.info
doi:10.1080/02699930541000020. /Letter_to_Menoeceus), Section 131-2.
ISSN 0269-9931. 18. About the Ends of Goods and Evils, Book I
12. Kron, Assaf; Goldstein, Ariel; Lee, Daniel (http://www.epicurus.info/etexts
Hyuk-Joon; Gardhouse, Katherine; Anderson, /De_Finibus.html#IX,), From Section IX,
Adam Keith (2013-08-01). "How Are You Torquatus sets out his understanding of
Feeling? Revisiting the Quantification of Epicurus's philosophy.
Emotional Qualia". Psychological Science. 24 19. Haque, Amber (2004). "Psychology from
(8): 15031511. Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early
doi:10.1177/0956797613475456. Muslim Scholars and Challenges to
ISSN 0956-7976. PMID 23824581. Contemporary Muslim Psychologists". Journal
13. Paul Bloom. How Pleasure Works: The New of Religion and Health. 43 (4): 357377 [371].
Science of Why We Like What We Like (2010) doi:10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z.
280 pages. Draws on neuroscience, philosophy, 20. Counsels and Maxims
child-development research, and behavioral (http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer
economics in a study of our desires, attractions, /arthur/counsels/chapter1.html), Chapter 1,
and tastes. General Rules Section 1.

Further reading
Bloom, Paul (2010). How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like.
W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393340006. Draws on neuroscience, philosophy,
child-development research, and behavioral economics in a study of our desires, attractions,
and tastes.
M.L. Kringelbach. The pleasure center: Trust Your Animal Instincts (2009). Oxford
University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532285-9. A general overview of the neuroscience of
pleasure.

External links
Paul, Margaret (April 14, 2015). "The Difference Between Happiness and Pleasure". The
Huffington Post.

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